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Revenge of the Nerds
Forbes ^ | 16 Dec 03 | Daniel Lyons

Posted on 12/16/2003 3:52:09 PM PST by Golden Eagle

Revenge Of The Nerds

Daniel Lyons, 12.16.03, 12:30 PM ET

NEW YORK - In the real world, Brenda Banks is a 54-year-old grandmother in Greer, S.C., a former warehouse supervisor who teaches rubber-stamping arts and crafts classes. But online she transforms into "br3n," a passionate user of Linux software who cruises Web sites posting smash-mouth messages about SCO Group. So far Banks has posted more than 1,500 messages on SCO's Yahoo! message board alone--including five on Thanksgiving.

"I feel very strongly about it," says Banks, who runs Linux on a six-year-old Acer home computer. "They want to come and stab Linux. It's just not right."

Banks has joined thousands of others in a rag-tag Linux army dedicated to the destruction of SCO (nasdaq: SCOX - news - people ), the Lindon, Utah, company that last March sued IBM (nyse: IBM - news - people ), claiming IBM put code from Unix, for which SCO holds some copyrights, into Linux, which is distributed for free. SCO also aims to collect license fees from companies that use Linux. IBM denies SCO's charges and has countersued. SCO also has been sued by Red Hat (nasdaq: RHAT - news - people ), a Linux distributor.

Linux crusaders insist SCO's claims have no merit and that SCO's evil managers will all end up in jail. They write to government agencies complaining about SCO, and some have even threatened to boycott the Royal Bank of Canada (nyse: RY - news - people ), one of SCO's investors. SCO's management has hired bodyguards after receiving death threats. Robert Enderle, an analyst who believes SCO's claims might be legitimate, says he and others also have been threatened, and says this "techno-insanity" verges on terrorism.

How do people get so emotionally involved with a piece of office equipment? "People are seeing something going on that they really consider evil," says Bruce Perens, a well-known Linux developer and independent consultant. "These people are just showing moral outrage."

Linux was developed collaboratively by thousands of people around the world, all working for free. Now some of those folks are becoming amateur legal researchers and financial sleuths too. Banks says she has complained about SCO to the Securities and Exchange Commission. "There's after-hours trading going on," she says. Isn't this common? "Not that I'm aware of." Moreover, sometimes SCO shares drop during the day, then rise in after-hours trading. "That raises alarm bells," she says. "Maybe there are some preference trades going on." And what are preference trades? "I don't know," she says.

Much of the rhetoric is ordinary cheerleading: "we will WIN. sco is TOAST," Banks wrote recently on Yahoo! (nasdaq: YHOO - news - people ). But sometimes it gets ugly, as when Banks and others refer to Laura DiDio, a market research analyst who is unpopular among Linux fans, as "Dildio." Says Banks: "I don't associate 'Dildio' with anything bad, and I think someone's mind has to be in the gutter to associate it with that. No offense."

Says DiDio of her tormentors, who swamp her with hateful email and "report" her to her supervisors at Boston-based Yankee Group: "Welcome to the wonderful world of Linux. These people are living in an alternative reality."

One poster, "korbomite," on SCO's Yahoo! message board has posted more than 3,100 messages to the board and says he is "single-mindedly working to destroy this company," though he won't give his real name. Another frequent poster, who requested anonymity, says he has stored evidence against SCO on CDs and stashed them in safe-deposit boxes scattered around his state "just in case." He says he has shared his evidence with the SEC and other government agencies.

Some in this camp are so angry that in December, when SCO said hackers had attacked its Web site, Linux zealots suggested SCO was staging the attacks itself. "If there is an attack, where is the proof? Did SCO...attack itself?" wrote Pamela Jones, a White Plains, N.Y. paralegal who runs a Web site called Groklaw which is devoted entirely to covering the SCO lawsuits. Jones launched her site in May and has published more than 400 articles, most of them bashing SCO.

From Groklaw the rumor of SCO's fake hacker rocketed to Slashdot.org., another site popular among techies. Readers on both sites post responses to stories and share links to other Web sites, which is how rumors and paranoia keep spreading, unchecked. One recent theme is that some people posting rabid anti-SCO messages are actually SCO "operatives" posing as pro-Linux zealots in order to make the Linux camp look like mean-spirited fruitcakes. Ahem.

Who runs this noisy echo chamber? Slashdot.org is owned by VA Software (nasdaq: LNUX - news - people ), a Linux vendor. Groklaw is hosted, free, by a non-profit outfit called iBiblio, which runs on $250,000 worth of Linux-based computers donated by IBM and a $2 million donation from a foundation set up by Robert Young, founder of Red Hat. Of course none of these sponsors has anything to do with the content of these sites. Then again, they don't seem too upset about it, either.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: ibm; linux; sco
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As Linux gains more acceptance, the more its lunatic element comes to light. Here are some other interesting worldwide Linux stories from this week:

World Socialist Web Site: Renewed attack on open source software

Internatinal Herald Tribune: Open-source software gets boost at UN

Australian Age: Labor, Democrats to participate in Open Source conference

1 posted on 12/16/2003 3:52:09 PM PST by Golden Eagle
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To: rdb3; Liberal Classic; Salo; Nick Danger; Bush2000; TheEngineer; Incorrigible; Leroy S. Mort; ...
Ping
2 posted on 12/16/2003 3:57:45 PM PST by Golden Eagle
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To: Golden Eagle
Funny. Linux, as Windows or candy covered almonds, has its supporters and detractors, fanatics and fringe groups.

Coincidentally, Greer, SC is right down the road from us.
My daughter's computer is running Mandrake, but we don't post messages about SCO online ;^)
3 posted on 12/16/2003 4:01:48 PM PST by visualops
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To: Golden Eagle
How do people get so emotionally involved with a piece of office equipment? "People are seeing something going on that they really consider evil," says Bruce Perens, a well-known Linux developer and independent consultant. "These people are just showing moral outrage."
Ohhh... sending death threats, DDoS attacks, using profanity to refer to somebody by name, all this is called moral outrage.
I am no fan of the GPL, and, it will be interesting to see if it is indeed a license or a contract. That is going to be key.
4 posted on 12/16/2003 4:10:28 PM PST by rit
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To: Golden Eagle
As Linux gains more acceptance, the more its lunatic element comes to light.

What do you mean by that?

5 posted on 12/16/2003 4:21:05 PM PST by isthisnickcool (Guns!)
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To: isthisnickcool
What do you mean by that?

Did you not read the article? Some of the Linux crowd is simply fanatical about Linux, bordering on (equaling?) religious obsessiveness. Which is generally not denied by anyone, except by those that are active members of "the community".

6 posted on 12/16/2003 4:25:15 PM PST by Golden Eagle
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To: Golden Eagle
Some of the Linux crowd is simply fanatical about Linux, bordering on (equaling?) religious obsessiveness.

You see, Goldilocks, this is how we know you're not really a Freeper. This same article has, for all practical purposes, been written about us. More than once.

Yes, we are obsessive Clinton haters. We have made threats against his life. We have used profanity in association with his name. We have done all this stuff, for pretty much the same reason (moral outrage), and been written about in very much the same way.

Yes, here is Brenda Hoo-hah, 35-year-old mother of 5, who has actually stood on street cornwer and waved signs at passersby. She is that fanatical about Clinton, and about his evil, and about getting rid of him.

And all across the Internet, there are more just like her.

I even got quoted in one of those articles. It was in the Dallas Morning News. At some point I seem to have said that I would not personally resort to violence, you understand, but that if Clinton was to run into someone who would, I might buy a round for the house.

Well. Aren't I the fanatic. Another Internet hatester, trading paranoid conspiracy theories about Clinton being mixed up with some bimbo, as if there was anything to that story.

I tell ya Buzzard, as a hit piece, this might have played better somewhere else. The media doesn't like Freepers very much either, and they have written this same story about us so many times that we can see right through it.

7 posted on 12/16/2003 4:45:34 PM PST by Nick Danger (With sufficient thrust, pigs fly just fine.)
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To: Golden Eagle
I read the article. It was about anomalies. Comparable to some who are insanely supportive of Microsoft. Makes for interesting reading. Freak/geek shows are something people seem to facinate with.

You have "Hale-Boppers" in just about any large group.

8 posted on 12/16/2003 4:49:44 PM PST by isthisnickcool (Guns!)
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To: Golden Eagle
Which is generally not denied by anyone, except by those that are active members of "the community".

So either people agree with you or they belong to "the community"

Very logical.

Ever seen the movie "The life of Brian" from the Monty Pythons? The scene where Brains tries to tell the people he is not the messias?
9 posted on 12/16/2003 4:53:02 PM PST by SkyRat (If privacy wasn't of value, we wouldn't have doors on bathrooms.)
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To: Nick Danger
Danger that is absolutely incorrect and completely backwards. Freepers have noble causes and are involved in politics and other important issues well above the normal concience of most people. Noble conservative causes.

"Linux" does not compare to the riteousness of Freep causes. LOOK AT THOSE LINKS ABOVE. The "world socialist web site"? The U.N.? The Labor and Democratic parties? These are the forces behind Linux, and I will continue to expose them.

You can now go back to your normal "apologist" duties, something I noticed you admitted to on another thread.
10 posted on 12/16/2003 4:55:44 PM PST by Golden Eagle
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To: isthisnickcool; Golden Eagle
Oh goody....a computer thread.

I don't have a dog in this Linex/Windows fight but something funny happened to my IE6 and maybe one of you guys can help me out.

I'm running XP Home Version and (probably after a recent update) I noticed that I no longer have a bottom border on my browser.

You know....the one that when you slide your mouse over a link, it shows the address or gives a progress bar after clicking.

I have been in Internet Tools....I have gone to defaults....I have right clicked on the task bar...rebooted etc...and nothing I do seems to bring that bottom border back.

Anyone got any ideas?

TIA

11 posted on 12/16/2003 4:58:48 PM PST by eddie willers
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To: Golden Eagle
Says Banks: "I don't associate 'Dildio' with anything bad, and I think someone's mind has to be in the gutter to associate it with that. No offense

Integrity.

That's what she's lacking.

12 posted on 12/16/2003 5:03:32 PM PST by Yeti
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To: SkyRat
So either people agree with you or they belong to "the community"

Nope, not at all, I said generally speaking but as the author indicated there are some real fanatics behind the Linux movement. It's time they be pointed out, and if there are some within the movement who would like to legitimize it they need to speak out and take control.

Death threats, denial of service attacks, openly stating they will never pay a dime for Linux even if it contains stolen property, these are outlandish tactics and should be rebuked by those within the movement that know better. It's very similar to expecting Muslims to eventually rebuke terrorist attacks, else all Muslims be condemed.

13 posted on 12/16/2003 5:06:28 PM PST by Golden Eagle
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To: eddie willers
Mine is only like that in full-screen mode.
14 posted on 12/16/2003 5:07:16 PM PST by Yeti
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To: eddie willers
Try View, Status Bar.
15 posted on 12/16/2003 5:07:19 PM PST by Golden Eagle
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To: Golden Eagle
Try View, Status Bar.

Bless you....that brought it back!

16 posted on 12/16/2003 5:09:02 PM PST by eddie willers
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To: eddie willers
Go to "view" and check the "status bar" hehe.
17 posted on 12/16/2003 5:10:33 PM PST by Yeti
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To: Yeti
Well, I meant well, anyway.
18 posted on 12/16/2003 5:11:30 PM PST by Yeti
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To: Yeti
Integrity. That's what she's lacking.

Obviously, but there are many Linux supporters who will openly cheer that answer. They will actually think it is a funny and respectable response. Of course they're techies, and may not know any better, but this is the big stage they're on now, and some just don't fit in well.

19 posted on 12/16/2003 5:12:06 PM PST by Golden Eagle
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To: eddie willers
Very Welcome.
20 posted on 12/16/2003 5:12:47 PM PST by Golden Eagle
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