[PatrioticAmerican]

"The Desktop Linux Summit is heavily consumer-focused, which not everyone agrees with,"

That is the statement that explains the Linux crowd: Anti-social, anti-capitalist. Sure, many in the open-source community enjoy open-source and find their time worthwhile in working with it, and I can certainly understand and appreciate that, but not the anti-social behavior so prominently displayed by many in the Linux crowd.

On one hand, many in the Linux crowd want to feel special that they are doing something differnt than Microsoft, and, one the other, claim that Linux will be mainstream soon while putting down anyone in the mainstream. Go figure.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Microsoft and Apple hated IBM in 1975, Linux hates Microsoft in 2000.

[ShadowAce]

That is the statement that explains the Linux crowd: Anti-social, anti-capitalist.

Sorry, but you have that exactly backwards. The entire linux community runs on social contacts and interactions. As far as anti-capitalist, you obviously don't seem to know what "open source" means. It doesn't mean "free as in beer" software. It means "free as in speech" software. Once I download, or purchase a software program, I should have the right to modify it to suit my needs better.

Once I purchase a car, I am allowed to modify it in any way I choose. Once I purchase a computer, I can modify it in any way I choose. Once I purchase a house, I can modify it in any way I choose.

Since all of the above examples are exposed to the public, I obviously need community permits, etc in order to do most of the work.

BUT I CAN DO IT, LEGALLY, WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE SELLER!

The whole business model of "license it, not purchase it" is anti-capitaist, and very much anti-social.

[Illbay]

"Anti-consumerist" is NOT "anti-capitalist" and it is NOT "socialist."

In fact, one of the best illustrations of this I have seen recently was in the old George Lucas film "THX 1138."

In that film, the ubiquitous voice of "big brother" or whomever, constantly exhorted the masses to "consume more." In a couple of scenes Duvall's character purchases stuff at the store on the way home from work, then discards it in the trash can as soon as he gets home.

FWIW, I don't see "the Linux crowd" the way you do AT ALL--in fact, I look at them as far more like Free Republic: Unwilling to bend to the will of the "masters."

For myself, I just can't stand the fact that I have spent so much money over the years on MS products, and they don't work worth a ****.