From: Alfie Costa (agcosta@gis.net)
Date: Wed Jul 12 2000 - 08:39:44 CEST
On 11 Jul 2000, at 18:13, Michele Andreoli <mulinux@sunsite.auc.dk> wrote:
> As KHZ said, it is difficult to believe in that: the guy also added a
> complete article about muLinux, without mention neither the Author, neither
> the free-software nature of muLinux.
This may be only a sign of laziness, without any deceitful intentions. I'm in
a very argumentative mood today, unfortunately, and so taking things one point
at a time:
1) No mention of the free software nature of muLinux.
The article appeared in the online version of "PC Quest" magazine, formerly "PC
World India", which seems to cover Linux regularly. According to this page:
http://www.pcquest.com/linux/index.asp
...the magazine has published Linux articles since 1996. A failure to describe
free software to an audience unfamiliar with Linux would be a shameless
oversight; but for a magazine that often promotes Linux it would be redundant
to mention it in every such article. Also, if the article is meant to describe
what's on their CD, they may think the docs included in the muLinux archive on
the CD say it all, so why say it twice?
2) Not mentioning the author.
Truly, it shows this magazine is quite dull, especially since muLinux's author
is at least as interesting as most software authors, and maybe even moreso. (In
a good way.) But this might be the editor's fault, not the poor author's,
because it might be PC Quest's editorial policy to only write about the "how"s
of a topic, rather than the "who", "what", "where", and "why". For example,
this article on MP3 players:
http://www.pcquest.com/may00/mp3_linux.asp
...doesn't mention the names of anyone who wrote the various MP3 programs
reviewed.
3) "The guy also added a complete article about muLinux..."
My reading is that there are at least two (2) guys.
Guy #1 is Rahul Joshi, (from India?), who wrote a somewhat inaccurate muLinux
article for "PC Quest". According to a quick web search, there are maybe
several persons with that name...
a) http://students.ou.edu/J/Rahul.Joshi-1/home1.html
(A coincidence: According to his online resume, this R.J. from
'students.ou.edu' is a member of a "MU ALPHA THETA" fraternity.)
b) http://www.geocities.com/Athens/7587/
(And this third(?) R.J. writes HOWTOs...)
c) http://www.linuxdoc.org/archives/ldp-discuss/msg02478.html
Guy #2 is Philip Ha, (from Hong Kong?), who is probably a different person than
Mr. Joshi, and who for all we know may never have heard of our own mu, or guy
#1.
What do these guys have in common? Besides computers, and an interest in
Linux, they are probably trying to use English as a second language. Most
people cannot write well in their native language, (easily proven by most
computer docs!), let alone a second**. As one who can't speak any Indian or
Chinese languages whatsoever, it is humbling to imagine attempting to do the
reverse of what those guys are doing, with all the obscene and clumsy errors I
would surely disgust the natives with.
(**Present company excepted. As previous threads should recall, I am a loyal
enthusiast of the "fractured" muLinux style!)
A digression: do any USA readers recall Zsa Zsa Gabor? She was an often
married Hungarian actress/celebrity who pretended to be dumber than she really
was. She had a talent for languages, in that she could aptly say things that
were too impolite or risque for a native speaker of American English to get
away with, but were easily forgiven and witty when said innocently in a thick
baby-like accent. There's a lot of Nativist humor where Americans cruelly mock
various Europeans' language difficulties, but this device was the exact oppose,
requiring greater mercy and skill.
The moral of which I take to be: Whenever the standards of a language become
so crooked, (not unlike crooked bricks), as to make what the language builds
proportionally crooked, so that its towers start to fall down as if by design;
that's when breakage of this language into usable materials becomes a real good
thing.
Well, that's a long argument, and the last bit has nothing to do with bogus
muLinux domain names. Maybe my reasoning is erroneous, maybe not, perhaps we
will know more soon.
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