Robert Pogson

Part of “Technological Evangelism” according to M$ is to denigrate competitive brands. In the FLOSS world, unfortunately, there is too much of that. One item is the holding down of the “Linux” brand. Two popular examples are Android/Linux and Ubuntu GNU/Linux. Site:ubuntu.com “linux” turns this up:
“This entry was marked as not being an idea the 29 July 11 …

What’s even more baffling is entering various Ubuntu Server pages and not seeing “Linux”. Doesn’t Canonical think that would help promote their server edition?
How does Canonical expect to be a major Linux provider when they don’t even bother to inform that THEY ARE A LINUX PROVIDER?!”

That seems to be a deliberate systematic avoidance of “Linux”. The same search on Android.com finds thousands of hits but still some individuals on the web declare that “Android’s not Linux” and other nonsense. There are few OEMs and retailers who mention Linux in material about Android, however.

Linux is a huge, diverse project upon which many other projects including Android/Linux and Ubuntu GNU/Linux depend. To suggest otherwise by neglecting the Linux brand is folly. While many consumers and businesses may have little awareness of Linux because they are not that intent on understanding technology but just using it, Linux is a strength and should list in the feature-set of all such great products.

Worse is the targeting of Linux or GNU/Linux as in any way inferior or lacking in merit. Lately, a supposed stalwart of journalism in IT has taken to knocking GNU/Linux at every turn:“The sad conclusion is that for the vast majority of users, Linux will be a promising first date that turns into a bad, even abusive, long-term relationship. After 15 years, I don’t want to hear any more excuses or how things will get better in the future.

If I’m dual-booting in the future, it will be with FreeBSD, not Linux. So long, and thanks for the fish.”

The fact that many millions of people have no problems with GNU/Linux compared to that other OS shows the dishonesty of such attacks. Not only has GNU/Linux held its share as the total number of users of PCs has increased over the years, but the share is increasing and the share of those using that other OS is decreasing. A PC, properly installed of GNU/Linux by an OEM and supported by an OEM, will not have any significant negatives for an end-user.

In fact, all */Linux systems have many advantages for end-users, particularly the licence which allows users to backup, restore, and copy the system any way they want unless they modify the source code and distribute the binary to others (they have to distribute the source code, not just the binary). Probably the greatest feature of GNU/Linux not found in that other OS is a simple way to update all the applications and the OS itself with one simple operation. M$ and its partners are just now thinking of doing something like that but they have a problem, squabbling over licensing fees…

On top of that Linux works with a wide variety of hardware and performs the tasks expected of an operating system and not doing the will of M$ to mess with competition and to restrict the user.

For all these reasons, the Linux brand should be promoted as a desirable feature of systems wherever it is used.