do you ever get the feeling that some people often called trolls around here
are out to bring the lost sheep back to the M$ fold ?

like some street corner preacher out to save our souls from the evil open source movement
and bring us back to worship at the alter that is windows to the all mighty god greed

do you ever get that felling ?

nope

Not really. As with any established board, there is a lot of "crying troll" when someone comes in with an opposite viewpoint. Most of the people come here and see us as representative of Linux and decide that this is the best way to blow off steam. As an expirement, try talking the poster down and seeing if their problem is solvable (people who just hate the way Linux works are fairly hard to reach but people who get angry because wireless, for example, won't work are reachable) to see if they're prepared to put in the hours and stick around.

The number of trolls is fairly small, comparatively, and they can be ignored/banned as required.

No, because I stop reading as soon as I start to dislike poster or his messages.

I wouldn't say so.What seems to happen a lot recently is that somebody goes like wondows is better at X and then somebody disputes the statement and the ball gets rolling...

And there ARE things windows is better at no matter how much we like Linux.

windows it self doesn't do anything. They only provided an environment and boasted enough about it that commercial developers produce products for it.

For example, if Adobe made their video editing and graphics programs for linux, I would buy them if I needed to do serious graphics work.

windows it self is nothing. You get a handful of software barely capable of doing rudimentary word processing and browsing the web (enough to get you a job so you can buy microshaft office)

Therefor, windows does nothing better than linux other than sell. Because linux can be downloaded for free.

See what I mean?
Now I am supposed to go like: but blah this,argue that to support my statement and before I know it I am an undercover guy from Redmont.

I get the feeling that some newer Linux users wish it was more like Windows. I don't think they intend to start arguments though. And I have to admit, in some cases I can see where they're coming from, even if I don't agree with them. Installing files/programs and making configuration changes seem to be two of the biggest hang-ups. For example, not all programs can be installed the same way; you may get a .deb / .rpm file, or a binary, or a tarball. Then one has to know when and how to compile what, which commands to use for different tasks (make vs ./), where to find dependencies, etc. This is all so radically different from the way Windows works, you're bound to get some seemingly hostile or negative reactions from people (especially users who knew Windows like the back of their hand and now find themselves back at the n00b level in Linux).

I am somewhat paranoid, so I do get this feeling. But, most of the time, trolls are just that ... trolls, big lumbering beasts with little brain and large club, whether they were hired out by the evil empire or not doesn't make much difference.

I don't see them much here, but on Digg and, to a lesser extent, Reddit, they're all over the place. Slashdot has "Twitter" who is an anti-MS troll of the worst type. He really is kind of embarrassing. Wikipedia has outrageous edit fights over all the major OSes. They use Linux, though, and usually have good info.

Don't feed the Trolls
Have a look at this if you have not all ready done so.

http://redwing.hutman.net/~mreed/index.htm

I've seen that before - so true, so true.

Funny site. But, you know, parts of me are not unlike many of those described there. Especially, Philosopher, Atheist, Evil Clown, Fanboy, Jekyll and Hyde, Acne, and others. I just try to keep those parts under control. The biggest problem with online communication in these ways is that, you wouldn't say something to someone's face in real life (things could get physical), but on forums and chatrooms ... it's safe, and even fun, haha

I think there was a thread on here a while ago about that.