Freetards

[ArtOfWarfare]

So, does anyone else use the word "freetards" to refer to Linux users?

I may not read FSJ often (actually I've only ever read it once or twice,) but I really love the phrase he made popular... "Linux Freetards".

[xUKHCx]

So, does anyone else use the word "freetards" to refer to Linux users?

I generally don't give myself names :rolleyes:

[Gray-Wolf]

Other than it sounding like an insult, never heard of it.

[mkrishnan]

Having been somewhat immersed for the first time in the Linux culture, for the past ~six months since Nov 07, when I got my Eee, I have to say I've honestly never heard the term before.

I kind of like it. :o On another forum I frequent another word that ends in tard and whose beginning rhymes with duck was a term of endearment. :)

[MacDawg]

but I really love the phrase he made popular... "Linux Freetards".

what is it that you love so much about it?

linux is clearly a viable operating system
those that use it are usually a relatively high level of user

is it disparaging the "free" part that you love?
that would apply to all open source technology then
does technology have to be expensive to be cool?

is it disparaging the users by implying "retard"?
why would you consider them such?
on the whole they may be 'geeky' i suppose, but hardly retards

just curious why you love the phrase

Woof, Woof - Dawg http://homepage.mac.com/k.j.vinson/pawprint.gif

[redwarrior]

Sounds more like it would apply to people who use pirated software. Never heard of it though.

[MacDawg]

Sounds more like it would apply to people who use pirated software. Never heard of it though.

good point redwarrior, i think you may be on to something

Woof, Woof - Dawg http://homepage.mac.com/k.j.vinson/pawprint.gif

[Gray-Wolf]

A little more internet info on it.

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2008

Patrick's Right: I'm a Freetard

Last night the OLPCLCDC met. While we were sitting there, the guys next to me said OSX is neutral because it's a UNIX so it can't be considered as bad as Windows, but it's still not as good as Linux. I said, "it's still proprietary." The guy in front of me turned around and said, "keep the faith."

If you don't get the "freetard" thing, that's what Fake Steve Jobs calls those of us who are really into Free Software and reject the proprietary stuff. My friend Patrick reads it a lot and is a Mac-lover, so he calls me a "freetard" when I say things like "I like the GIMP better than Photoshop."

Link to source - http://ubuntulinuxtipstricks.blogspot.com/2008/02/patricks-right-im-freetard.html

[MacDawg]

^^^^
OK, so is this not a disparaging moniker, but a badge of honor?

Woof, Woof - Dawg http://homepage.mac.com/k.j.vinson/pawprint.gif

[redwarrior]

^^^^
OK, so is this not a disparaging moniker, but a badge of honor?

Woof, Woof - Dawg http://homepage.mac.com/k.j.vinson/pawprint.gif
I think so; kinda like calling someone a geek. I see it as a compliment, but my family thinks I'm being insulted.:cool:

[iJohnHenry]

Freetard = corporate crying.

Never heard of it before, but sounds not unlike sour grapes.

[mkrishnan]

Never heard of it before, but sounds not unlike sour grapes.

Usually the Fake Steve Jobs character is a satire of the corporate rebel.... it's a way for a Forbes writer to express that kind of humor outside the narrower editorial confines of Forbes itself. But I don't read FSJ very regularly at all, and I hadn't seen it there, and if it's being used elsewhere, it's news to me. The kind of people who call Linux users names are mostly not the kind of people who read FSJ....

[ham_man]

Freetards == (usually) Linux users who never use software that must be paid for, regardless of how much more useful or efficient it may be compared to the free alternative

[Reissman]

I just started using ubuntu a linux based operating system. The fact that I could put it on an old laptop for my kids. No viruses, fun to use, and I didnt have to buy another Apple to get that. I love my apple but I didnt have the money for another one and I didnt want another windows machine. If some one calls me a freetard I would have have another name for them.

[brad.c]

Um, looking at the retail box for Leopard Family on my shelf, I wonder if that makes me a paytard?

Wait, no I got a better one. Leoptard.

And the fact I waited four months to install is a sign of my leoptardiness?

Once I was a BeOStard (sorry if that's a bad word, or a cusstard, if you will).

[twoodcc]

never heard of it

[cycocelica]

I don't dabble in this "freetards" stuff.

[PlaceofDis]

never heard of it, and probably won't ever use it.

[hotzenplotz]

Never heard of freetard = Linux user.

[Sun Baked]

I thought, "Finally a poll about the people posting their freecrap.com refer number here."

[Melrose]

I have never heard of it, and don't look down on Linux users just because they're a lower life form obsessed with free softwares and perverted command-line junk, so I'd never stoop myself to calling someone a name like that :D

[Dagless]

Freetard = corporate crying.

Never heard of it before, but sounds not unlike sour grapes.

LOL, I must agree.

So then. Freetard? I suppose it's a coincidence that it phonetically sounds like retard. Because I'd be asking what's retarded about it. Surely hunting out good applications is better than mindlessly paying for rubbish ones simply because they're advertised.

[Aeolius]

I would automatically think less of a person, if they were to use that term. Belittling the disabled, way to joke around.

[Melrose]

LOL, I must agree.

So then. Freetard? I suppose it's a coincidence that it phonetically sounds like retard. Because I'd be asking what's retarded about it. Surely hunting out good applications is better than mindlessly paying for rubbish ones simply because they're advertised.

So M$ users are Paytards? :D

[brad.c]

So M$ users are Paytards? :D

Why didn't I think of..

[Tankgunk]

I generally don't give myself names :rolleyes:

Same here, although I much prefer OSX for daily use, and linux for servers. But I don't buy any software aside from an occasional game (only one game to date) or OSX upgrade (usually from my school anyway, I do tech work for them).

So M$ users are Paytards? :D

Yes. :D

[roisin and mac]

I'd never heard of it before now (always nice to learn new things!) I still probably wouldn't use it precisely because it sounds like it's a badge of honor kind of thing, unless I came to be a part of that group, where I would use it to refer to myself and others like me. But it's a fun word, I like the self-deprecating tone of it :-)

Interesting poll!

[Decrepit]

So, does anyone else use the word "freetards" to refer to Linux users?

I may not read FSJ often (actually I've only ever read it once or twice,) but I really love the phrase he made popular... "Linux Freetards".

I've been using Linux since it was made available on floppy disk images back on an MIT FTP site in 1992.

And I've never heard the term related to Linux users.

And it was only this week that I heard the term at all from somebody who didn't believe that they should ever have to pay for something that somebody else spent time creating.

[Evangelion]

Freetards == (usually) Linux users who never use software that must be paid for, regardless of how much more useful or efficient it may be compared to the free alternative

"free" in "free software" does not refer to price, but freedom. And some people think that having some short-term "efficency" is not worth the long-term lock-in that results from that "efficiency". The world is full of stories how some company went bankrupt, leaving their users in the cold. The world is full of stories of products that were simply discontinued, while users were simply told to upgrade to some other version. The world is full of stories of how company starts to extract every available penny from their customers, because the customer can't change their software, since they are too deeply invested in that particular software.

There are a lot of people who think that avoiding those situations is worth a lot more than any possible short-term "efficiency-boost" proprietary software might give them. They see proprietary software as handcuffs. At best, they might be golden handcuffs, but they would still be handcuffs. Now, you might disagree with that, but it doesn't really make their view on the matter wrong.

Now, I'm a Mac-user. But before I went to Mac, I used Linux, and I have started to get this feeling that I should go back to Linux. No, I probably would not leave Mac entirely, I would just move from one main OS to two main OS'es.

And the thing is that I see no need for animosity between Mac-users and Linux-users. Macs have benefitted TRENDEMOUSLY from free software, and I have a feeling that it's a lot easier for Linux to interoperate with Macs than it would be to interoperate with Windows. In many ways, there are more similarities between Linux-users and Mac-users. For starters: both groups are passionate about their platform of choice. Have you ever met someone who is a "passionate Windows-user"? I sure as hell haven't.