Re: Wagner: "Actions speak louder than words:They're saying 'Linux Sucks'"

[Art Lemasters <slemas1@mindspring.com>]

  I unsubscribed after seeing the following (and other,
similar replies).  Some of you have a lot to learn about
spam.  I was not advertising any product or promoting
anyone else's product.  I help to fight spam by reporting
it.  There is nothing at the Debian Web site (or even with
an "info" command to the mailserver concerning debian-user)
that prohibits or excludes what I posted (about Wagner's
abuse of a security specification to write a negative,
parabolic column about Linux in a news publication).  There
were both snide and polite negative responses and some
positive responses to the post.

  Is there any written policy/info specific to the Debian-user
list?

  ...a sincere thanks to those of you who did give patient,
informative replies revealing Wagner's abuse of the Common
Criteria standard of security analysis to criticize Linux.
Through those replies, I gained keywords to learn more after
a series of Web searches, about Debian GNU/Linux security
approaches as compared to approaches used by other distribution
and OS groups.  I found that Linux operating systems leave
more discretion and responsibility to users as to security
considerations, than say, NetBSD.  ...good or bad?  I don't
know, yet, and am looking.  ...also subscribing to other user
lists to compare responses to uninformed posts and "go away"
response levels.


Art

I.J.W Wever wrote:
> >  "...page impressions?"  Is that a new marketing >term?  I've been involved
> > in a socio-political struggle while studying and >advising on convincing
> > political speech for over ten years--and quite >succesfully so.  How long
> > have you studied propaganda?
>
> Argument from authority. Blah.
>
>
> >  A few hundred hits from one list won't make that >much difference to an
> > online news publication.  
>
> It does if the news publication has only a few hundred readers. Also, don't underestimate the amount of people subscribed to this list.
>
>
> >  Our response to such a slam as Wagner's in >political activism would be
> > to threaten the publication with boycott 
>
> Censorship, how nice.
>
>
> >  I've run Debian Linux for eight years and 
>
> So what?
>
>
> > subscribed to the list again
> > (after several years off the list) last night.  After >my first post
> > (heads'-up about Wagner's story slamming Linux >security), I'm flamed with
> > false accusations that I spammed the debian-user list >with off-topic material.
>
> You are overreacting. You weren't flamed. You were critisized, by someone with a different opinion. I personally think you gave some good counter-arguments in this reply.
>
>
> >  Is there another list for Debian public relations >issues?  We once
> > discussed public relations, occasionally.  Is this >list coming to the
> > youthful rudeness we once saw on the FreeBSD list?
>
> As far as I have seen here, the Debian developers don't care about public relations. They care about the quality of the distro, not what some jackass thinks about it. You could spend the rest of your life countering morons that dislike Debian for the wrong reasons. (It is of course perfectly acceptable to dislike Debian)
>
>
> > Does it cover the many virii 
>
> FYI, that's not a word. The Latin plural would be 'viri', but unfortunately 'virus' does not have a plural in Latin.
>
>
> > that eclipse corporate MicroSnot
>
> Youthful rudeness? Do your really expect people to take your seriously when you cannot refer to your competitor or hated enemy with its correct name?
>
>
> >  I'll use and write about the OS that works the >best and has the most
> > reasonable user cooperation.
>
> And we love you for doing so, but that still doesn't mean you need to spam his article to this list.