This made me numb:

http://shelleytherepublican.com/2006...computers.html

Can people really be so stupid?

Name:Shelley Goodman
Location:Iowa City, Iowa, United State
(Republican)
... someone who enjoys being flamed. Go for it!

Y'know how stupid the average person is?
Well ... statistically speaking, 50% of them are even dumber than that!
-- Jack Lewton (Discworld Noir)

News Break: We can confirm that US President, George W. Bush, has survived an assassination attempt this morning. The bullet entered his body in the middle of his forehead, missing his brain by ... six feet.
--- Not the Nine O'Clock News (paraphrased)

[Linux is] a computer program that was initially developed in Finland as a means of circumventing valuable copyrights and patents owned by an American company called SCO Group.
-- Shelly Goodman

Yes, Linux is a primative European clone; It is much less capable than Windows. In fact it omits features that were standard in Windows back in 1998; For example Linux has no built-in anti-virus or anti-spyware software.

You cannot even buy popular utilities like Norton Security to compensate for this fact. There are no tools for common tasks like defragging a hard disk. God knows what you would use to send a fax or make a website. You cannot even get Front Page for Linux.

Linux is that bad; The only explaination I can think for people using it is that it by-passes the protection given by American companies and the Dept of Homeland Security. It should be considered a terrorist program.
-- Tristan (Shelly Goodman website)

This is actually halarious.
Leads me to suspect this is toungue in cheek.

God, even worse than Ann Coulter.

Don't get fooled by the mask of stupidity and toughness of republicans. These guys are very close to running a teocracy in the United States.

"theocracy" presumably. I have noticed.

There is this little thing called a "constitution" getting in the way of the final few moves though. Interesting - NZ survives without a constitution (it's had an erzatz constitution since 1997, but it dos'nt really work the same).

I wonder if the "freedom of speech" and "freedom of expression" part will ever get applied to software ... may in the same way as other written works?

OTOH: FOSS is having seriously tough time getting accepted here. At least officially: NZers tend to ignore any law they don't like.

Don't pay attention. Dogs are barking, the train is moving.

Moved: This thread is more suitable in General and has been moved accordingly to help your thread/question get the exposure it deserves.

Since the article is about Linux, I posted it in "Linux - General" ... You're the boss!

This is about a blog (an article which may or may not be genuine) rather than a technical question, so I moved it.

Yes.....

I just poked around on Shelley's site to see if maybe it was a joke. Hard to say for sure, but I think not.

Whether or not Shelley is for real, rest assured that there are millions of people out there who really believe this kind of garbage. Scary

No, shelltherepublican is a satire. But its not far from the truth. =)

Me being the most conservative, fundamentalist Christian probably any of you will ever meet, I must say that this "ShelleytheRepublican" is blasphemy, whether it is a joke or not. I am pretty sure it is a joke, since it was published in the "humor" section of linuxtoday.com.

Saying that God is on Bush's side or America's side is incorrect. Bush and all Republicans are essentially liberal secularists and are, IMO only a "lesser of two evils," if there is such a thing. Therefore, I do not vote.

Saying that God is on the side of Microsoft?? That's where blasphemy comes in, as Microsoft has supported gay marriage in the past. God does not care what OS we use, what car we drive or what country we live in, God cares for the hearts and souls of all men.

To invoke the name of God in such a way as "Shelley" has done is very dangerous, whether done by a true "extremist" Republican type or by a liberal-Democrat prankster.

"...were in not for the Linux project's seductive Marxist ideology..."

Ah-hah! Here's the real issue. Classic representation of the problem Republicans have with the concept of sharing. It's really funny how republicans automatically jump to the conclusion that any kind of communism is evil. Ask a republican what communism is in it's basic form, and I promise they won't know.

Mmmm. This site is not satirical. This site links to gop.com. Hold your breath:
http://shelley.gop.com/

It's not that I thought the site is satirical - just the article. I havn't seen enough of the site to decide.

It [the article] was not written by Shelly. If serious, it looks like Shelly has been shown up for a gullible idiot for publishing it. Read the authors followup later ... protesting you cannot even "defrag" a hard disk in linux? C'mon, the author knows why this is.

It is interesting that the main factual statements are almost true:

Linus did set out to get around the copywrite/patent restrictions on MINIX when he started linux. The patents were not owned by SCO - demonstrated in court.

I don't know about the osama-linux connection, and the whole "osama is behind blackmarket DVDs" is just plain weird. However, it is probably easier to rip DVDs and CDs under linux than any other OS. I mean - the tools come with major distros.

The earliest electronic computers followed american designs, and american philosophy (ENIAC, Turing) and the rise of the desktop on top of the 8068/Z80 processor family is definately USA. Does this make some EU folk jealouse - probably.

The quote about linux=cancer is true. But it is stating an opinion which is wrong and biased (the microsoft reference was included - which undermines the impact of the statement, another reason to suspect satire.)

I still say the evidence suggests the joke is on "Shelly" - and the republicans the site represents. (Or anyone else who finds themselves nodding in agreement or kneejerking in outrage.)

I wonder if she would publish the flames?

Oh - while we're talking about osama and linux:
Osama bin Laden, Open Source software, and the United States