One argument that always comes up with the Open Source crowd is "you have the source code so you can fix any holes, extend it, etc,etc,etc...". This point brilliantly shows teh nearsightedness that a lot of opensource people have: I'm a hell of a packet monkey, and even a decent programmer from time to time, but what the hell use is having the source code to me? I don't know C, C++ or any other language that is used to write these applications. I wouldn't know a hole in the software even if it was pointed out to me. much less be able to fix/extend the software. So what good is it if I have the source? And if I can't do this, what makes you expect that Grandma and Uncle Bob will be able to?

OK, after being a Slashdotter for many years (my God, am I actually admitting to that), I've decided to make use of their little journal feature since it's a slow weekend right now.

I'm amazed that people actually take /. so seriously that they actually use the Friend/Foe thingy. Apparently I'm Friend to some, and Foe to others. *sigh* Does Slashdot actually matter to people that much that they actually have Virtual Enemies, based entirely on whether my thoughts agree with theirs? /me shakes head sadly...

Uh, other than the fact that the vast majority of Slashdotters don't seem firmly anchored in reality, I dont have much else to say right now. Anchored in reality? Yeah. I'm disappointed that a supposed educated bunch of people view the world in a strictly binary fashion. Maybe they're spending a little too much time with computers and not interfacing with the wetware much. What could I possibly mean? The "Linux Good, everything else BAD! (Except for OSX)". This leads to "OSS Good! Paying for software BAD!(except for OSX)". You can't rightly preach about the virutes of Open Computing unless youre willing to embrace other platforms, too. Makes you sound like a hypocrite, and a very very bad one at that.

I'm not willing to get into Yet Another Debate on the inherent security flaws in Windows vs. Linux. Linux isn't totally secure by default, either so only the BSD people can rightfulyl chuckle at everyone else.

So give it a rest people. Self-righteousness isn't in vogue anymore and it's an awful long fall from those high horses.