In this article posted at TechNewsWorld, Rob Enderle suggests that Linux has reached the point globally that others only wish they could achieve… He cites examples of situations where Linux users have formed coalitions (ex: The Union of Free Software Professionals), have organized to meet their goals (ex: bashing SCO with denial-of-service attacks), and controlling the media (ex: influencing a column published by Sys-Com Media that initially tried to discredit Groklaw’s founder, but was later pulled for “lack of evidence”). The only thing needed, says Enderle, is strong leadership.
I guess I’d have to agree on a few points with the article… I mean, I read a decent number of postings on Slashdot every day and see what kind of responses the posts get. Slashdot readers alone could probably organize a decent DOS attack against anyone they wanted…if they wanted to…and if they wanted to stoop to Microsoft’s level (…of bullying, that is…). I guess I’m glad to see that Linux users have a decent amount of power and organization, but at the same time, it would be nice to have some leader step forward (IBM? Novell?) and control the masses a bit…so they do more good than damage…