Operating system advocacy
Encyclopedia
Operating system advocacy is the practice of attempting to increase the awareness and improve the perception of a computer
operating system
. The motivation behind this may be to increase the number of users of a system, to assert the superiority of one choice over another or out of brand loyalty
, pride in an operating system's abilities, or to persuade software vendors to port
specific applications or device drivers to the platform.
Operating system advocacy can vary widely in tone and form, from published comparisons to heated debates on mailing list
s and other forums
. In its most extreme forms it can veer into zealotry. Advocates are often normal users who devote their spare time to advocacy of their operating system of choice; many have a deep and abiding interest in the use, design and construction of operating systems and an emotional investment in their favourite operating system.
Operating system advocacy can be compared to advocacy in other fields, particularly browser
and editor war
s, but also advocacy of programming language
s and video game console
s.
hierarchy has a group reserved solely for advocacy—the Guide to the Windows newsgroups exhorts Usenet posters not to "get involved in arguments about Windows vs. OS/2 vs. Macintosh vs. NeXTSTEP except in the comp.os.ms-windows.advocacy group."
Operating system advocacy discussions, on Usenet and elsewhere, have spawned a variety of jargon
describing commonly seen behaviour, including "MicroDroid" and "Amiga Persecution Complex". The emotional form and negative characteristics often associated with operating system advocacy have led some to create guidelines explaining what they consider to be positive advocacy, such as the Linux Advocacy Guidelines and the Guidelines for Effective OS/2 Advocacy.
is served by a mailing list
specifically for advocacy discussion. Advocacy-related materials and links are provided on the FreeBSD website
, including a page of logo
s.
s, there are many organizations involved in Linux
advocacy, including companies directly involved in the development of distributions as well as purely advocacy-based groups, such as SEUL
. Promotion takes on a wide variety of forms from Tux
plush toys to t-shirt
s and poster
s, and even to more unorthodox forms, such as body paints and video games.
and "Test Drive a Macintosh" to the Apple Switch
and Get a Mac
advertising campaigns, Apple Computer
has a long history of advocating its platform through innovative techniques in traditional media. This also covers advocacy of the Macintosh
hardware, peripherals and even lifestyle choices, with both fans and the company projecting a hip
and trendy image while negatively portraying Microsoft Windows
, IBM
or other competitors as anything from awkward and dated to a totalitarian Big Brother
figure.
Foundation hosts a mailing list
especially for advocacy. This mailing list is automatically archived and made accessible online. They also provide some official advocacy material, such as posters and flyers and an official "powered by" logo with a license permitting use on any product running NetBSD.
project provides a mailing list specifically intended for advocacy, advocacy@openbsd.org. It was created on July 21, 1998 for discussion of user groups, stickers, shirts and the promotion of OpenBSD's image and also to host all flame-worthy
discussions. As a part of its advocacy, the project also maintains a list of consulting firms and individual consultants around the world on its website and has produced a number of slogans, including "Free, Functional & Secure", "Secure by default", and "Power. Security. Flexibility." Each OpenBSD release features an original song and a variety of artwork.
is the only operating system which saw the creation of a semi-formal advocates organization. Named Team OS/2
, it was a grassroots
organization conceived by an IBM
employee and initially joined by other IBMers which quickly spread outside IBM. Whether IBM employees or not, Team OS/2 members initially volunteered their time and passion without official sanction from or connection to IBM. Members would promote OS/2 at trade shows, conferences, fairs, and in stores, participate in operating system discussions on CompuServe
, Prodigy
, Fidonet
and Usenet, throw parties, help users install OS/2, contact media figures to explain OS/2 and generate interest, and in general exercise creativity and initiative in helping popularize OS/2.
The industry dynamics that gave rise to such passionate advocacy were multi-faceted. Perhaps the leading cause was antipathy for the idea that Microsoft could and would establish a monopoly for Windows and DOS, widely deemed as far inferior to OS/2. Additionally, many users feared that IBM, who had proven eminently capable of developing a superior PC operating system, knew very little about consumer marketing in the high-tech marketplace or establishing even a superior product as a standard in the cut-throat, get-there-first-at-any-cost arena dominated by Microsoft. Finally, the mere fact that so many copies of Windows were shipping to users (whom OS/2 advocates viewed as uncritical and uninformed), coupled with the fact that so many in the industry had so much riding on the success of OS/2, created conditions ripe for so many trying to take matters into their own hands. The only spark that was needed for this combustible situation to ignite was an example of evangelism provided by the "new IBM" - a few employees who took "empowerment" seriously, able to coordinate their efforts through participation in TEAMOS2 FORUM, an internal IBM discussion group) - and passionate supporters outside IBM who adopted the ideas and modeled the behaviors of those who were early activists within IBM..
Computer
A computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem...
operating system
Operating system
An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
. The motivation behind this may be to increase the number of users of a system, to assert the superiority of one choice over another or out of brand loyalty
Brand loyalty
The American Marketing Association defines brand loyalty as:# The situation in which a consumer generally buys the same manufacturer-originated product or service repeatedly over time rather than buying from multiple suppliers within the category .# The degree to which a consumer consistently...
, pride in an operating system's abilities, or to persuade software vendors to port
Porting
In computer science, porting is the process of adapting software so that an executable program can be created for a computing environment that is different from the one for which it was originally designed...
specific applications or device drivers to the platform.
Operating system advocacy can vary widely in tone and form, from published comparisons to heated debates on mailing list
Mailing list
A mailing list is a collection of names and addresses used by an individual or an organization to send material to multiple recipients. The term is often extended to include the people subscribed to such a list, so the group of subscribers is referred to as "the mailing list", or simply "the...
s and other forums
Internet forum
An Internet forum, or message board, is an online discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages. They differ from chat rooms in that messages are at least temporarily archived...
. In its most extreme forms it can veer into zealotry. Advocates are often normal users who devote their spare time to advocacy of their operating system of choice; many have a deep and abiding interest in the use, design and construction of operating systems and an emotional investment in their favourite operating system.
Operating system advocacy can be compared to advocacy in other fields, particularly browser
Browser wars
Browser wars is a metaphorical term that refers to competitions for dominance in usage share in the web browser marketplace. The term is often used to denote two specific rivalries: the competition that saw Microsoft's Internet Explorer replace Netscape's Navigator as the dominant browser during...
and editor war
Editor war
Editor war is the common name for the rivalry between users of the vi and Emacs text editors. The rivalry has become a lasting part of hacker culture and the free software community....
s, but also advocacy of programming language
Programming language
A programming language is an artificial language designed to communicate instructions to a machine, particularly a computer. Programming languages can be used to create programs that control the behavior of a machine and/or to express algorithms precisely....
s and video game console
Video game console
A video game console is an interactive entertainment computer or customized computer system that produces a video display signal which can be used with a display device to display a video game...
s.
Usenet and other advocacy forums
Due to the often emotional nature of advocacy debate and its sometimes narrow appeal to the wider user population, forums for discussion of advocacy are often separate from those for general discussion. For example, the comp.os.ms-windows UsenetUsenet
Usenet is a worldwide distributed Internet discussion system. It developed from the general purpose UUCP architecture of the same name.Duke University graduate students Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis conceived the idea in 1979 and it was established in 1980...
hierarchy has a group reserved solely for advocacy—the Guide to the Windows newsgroups exhorts Usenet posters not to "get involved in arguments about Windows vs. OS/2 vs. Macintosh vs. NeXTSTEP except in the comp.os.ms-windows.advocacy group."
Operating system advocacy discussions, on Usenet and elsewhere, have spawned a variety of jargon
Jargon
Jargon is terminology which is especially defined in relationship to a specific activity, profession, group, or event. The philosophe Condillac observed in 1782 that "Every science requires a special language because every science has its own ideas." As a rationalist member of the Enlightenment he...
describing commonly seen behaviour, including "MicroDroid" and "Amiga Persecution Complex". The emotional form and negative characteristics often associated with operating system advocacy have led some to create guidelines explaining what they consider to be positive advocacy, such as the Linux Advocacy Guidelines and the Guidelines for Effective OS/2 Advocacy.
FreeBSD
FreeBSDFreeBSD
FreeBSD is a free Unix-like operating system descended from AT&T UNIX via BSD UNIX. Although for legal reasons FreeBSD cannot be called “UNIX”, as the direct descendant of BSD UNIX , FreeBSD’s internals and system APIs are UNIX-compliant...
is served by a mailing list
Mailing list
A mailing list is a collection of names and addresses used by an individual or an organization to send material to multiple recipients. The term is often extended to include the people subscribed to such a list, so the group of subscribers is referred to as "the mailing list", or simply "the...
specifically for advocacy discussion. Advocacy-related materials and links are provided on the FreeBSD website
Website
A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...
, including a page of logo
Logo
A logo is a graphic mark or emblem commonly used by commercial enterprises, organizations and even individuals to aid and promote instant public recognition...
s.
Linux
As there are a large number of Linux distributionLinux distribution
A Linux distribution is a member of the family of Unix-like operating systems built on top of the Linux kernel. Such distributions are operating systems including a large collection of software applications such as word processors, spreadsheets, media players, and database applications...
s, there are many organizations involved in Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
advocacy, including companies directly involved in the development of distributions as well as purely advocacy-based groups, such as SEUL
SEUL
Simple End User Linux is an advocacy group that promotes Linux programs in education and science.SEUL also hosts numerous free software projects and efforts, such as the WorldForge Project's website. The SEUL/Edu project seeks to further the use of Linux and Open Source software in schools, and was...
. Promotion takes on a wide variety of forms from Tux
Tux
Tux is a penguin character and the official mascot of the Linux kernel. Originally created as an entry to a Linux logo competition, Tux is the most commonly used icon for Linux, although different Linux distributions depict Tux in various styles. In video games featuring the character, female...
plush toys to t-shirt
T-shirt
A T-shirt is a style of shirt. A T-shirt is buttonless and collarless, with short sleeves and frequently a round neck line....
s and poster
Poster
A poster is any piece of printed paper designed to be attached to a wall or vertical surface. Typically posters include both textual and graphic elements, although a poster may be either wholly graphical or wholly text. Posters are designed to be both eye-catching and informative. Posters may be...
s, and even to more unorthodox forms, such as body paints and video games.
Macintosh OS
From the 1984 Super Bowl advertisement1984 (television commercial)
"1984" is an American television commercial which introduced the Apple Macintosh personal computer for the first time. It was conceived by Steve Hayden, Brent Thomas and Lee Clow at Chiat/Day, Venice, produced by New York production company Fairbanks Films, and directed by Ridley Scott. Anya Major...
and "Test Drive a Macintosh" to the Apple Switch
Apple Switch ad campaign
Switch was an advertising campaign launched by Apple Computer on June 10, 2002. It featured what the company referred to as "real people" who had "switched" from the Microsoft Windows platform to the Mac. An international television and print ad campaign directed users to a website where various...
and Get a Mac
Get a Mac
The Get a Mac campaign is a television advertising campaign created for Apple Inc. by TBWA\Media Arts Lab, the company's advertising agency, that ran from 2006 to 2009...
advertising campaigns, Apple Computer
Apple Computer
Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation that designs and markets consumer electronics, computer software, and personal computers. The company's best-known hardware products include the Macintosh line of computers, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad...
has a long history of advocating its platform through innovative techniques in traditional media. This also covers advocacy of the Macintosh
Macintosh
The Macintosh , or Mac, is a series of several lines of personal computers designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. The first Macintosh was introduced by Apple's then-chairman Steve Jobs on January 24, 1984; it was the first commercially successful personal computer to feature a mouse and a...
hardware, peripherals and even lifestyle choices, with both fans and the company projecting a hip
Hip (slang)
Hip is a slang term meaning fashionably current and in the know. Hip is the opposite of square or prude.Hip, like cool, does not refer to one specific quality. What is considered hip is continuously changing. The term hip is said to have originated in African American Vernacular English in the...
and trendy image while negatively portraying Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
, IBM
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
or other competitors as anything from awkward and dated to a totalitarian Big Brother
Big Brother (1984)
Big Brother is a fictional character in George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. He is the enigmatic dictator of Oceania, a totalitarian state taken to its utmost logical consequence – where the ruling Party wields total power for its own sake over the inhabitants.In the society that Orwell...
figure.
Microsoft Windows
Neowin.net wrote editorials opposing Windows-bashing in the media. Microsoft has attempted to boost popularity of Windows 7 with a launch party program.NetBSD
Like FreeBSD, the NetBSDNetBSD
NetBSD is a freely available open source version of the Berkeley Software Distribution Unix operating system. It was the second open source BSD descendant to be formally released, after 386BSD, and continues to be actively developed. The NetBSD project is primarily focused on high quality design,...
Foundation hosts a mailing list
Mailing list
A mailing list is a collection of names and addresses used by an individual or an organization to send material to multiple recipients. The term is often extended to include the people subscribed to such a list, so the group of subscribers is referred to as "the mailing list", or simply "the...
especially for advocacy. This mailing list is automatically archived and made accessible online. They also provide some official advocacy material, such as posters and flyers and an official "powered by" logo with a license permitting use on any product running NetBSD.
OpenBSD
Like FreeBSD and NetBSD, the OpenBSDOpenBSD
OpenBSD is a Unix-like computer operating system descended from Berkeley Software Distribution , a Unix derivative developed at the University of California, Berkeley. It was forked from NetBSD by project leader Theo de Raadt in late 1995...
project provides a mailing list specifically intended for advocacy, advocacy@openbsd.org. It was created on July 21, 1998 for discussion of user groups, stickers, shirts and the promotion of OpenBSD's image and also to host all flame-worthy
Flaming
Flaming, also known as bashing, is hostile and insulting interaction between Internet users. Flaming usually occurs in the social context of an Internet forum, Internet Relay Chat , Usenet, by e-mail, game servers such as Xbox Live or Playstation Network, and on video-sharing websites...
discussions. As a part of its advocacy, the project also maintains a list of consulting firms and individual consultants around the world on its website and has produced a number of slogans, including "Free, Functional & Secure", "Secure by default", and "Power. Security. Flexibility." Each OpenBSD release features an original song and a variety of artwork.
OS/2
OS/2OS/2
OS/2 is a computer operating system, initially created by Microsoft and IBM, then later developed by IBM exclusively. The name stands for "Operating System/2," because it was introduced as part of the same generation change release as IBM's "Personal System/2 " line of second-generation personal...
is the only operating system which saw the creation of a semi-formal advocates organization. Named Team OS/2
Team OS/2
Team OS/2 was an advocacy group formed to promote IBM's OS/2 operating system. Originally internal to and sponsored by IBM, Team OS/2 became a wholly grassroots organization following IBM's decision to de-emphasize OS/2. It is one of the earliest examples of an online viral...
, it was a grassroots
Grassroots
A grassroots movement is one driven by the politics of a community. The term implies that the creation of the movement and the group supporting it are natural and spontaneous, highlighting the differences between this and a movement that is orchestrated by traditional power structures...
organization conceived by an IBM
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
employee and initially joined by other IBMers which quickly spread outside IBM. Whether IBM employees or not, Team OS/2 members initially volunteered their time and passion without official sanction from or connection to IBM. Members would promote OS/2 at trade shows, conferences, fairs, and in stores, participate in operating system discussions on CompuServe
CompuServe
CompuServe was the first major commercial online service in the United States. It dominated the field during the 1980s and remained a major player through the mid-1990s, when it was sidelined by the rise of services such as AOL with monthly subscriptions rather than hourly rates...
, Prodigy
Prodigy (ISP)
Prodigy Communications Corporation was an online service that offered its subscribers access to a broad range of networked services, including news, weather, shopping, bulletin boards, games, polls, expert columns, banking, stocks, travel, and a variety of other features.Initially subscribers...
, Fidonet
FidoNet
FidoNet is a worldwide computer network that is used for communication between bulletin board systems. It was most popular in the early to mid 1990s, prior to the introduction of easy and affordable access to the Internet...
and Usenet, throw parties, help users install OS/2, contact media figures to explain OS/2 and generate interest, and in general exercise creativity and initiative in helping popularize OS/2.
The industry dynamics that gave rise to such passionate advocacy were multi-faceted. Perhaps the leading cause was antipathy for the idea that Microsoft could and would establish a monopoly for Windows and DOS, widely deemed as far inferior to OS/2. Additionally, many users feared that IBM, who had proven eminently capable of developing a superior PC operating system, knew very little about consumer marketing in the high-tech marketplace or establishing even a superior product as a standard in the cut-throat, get-there-first-at-any-cost arena dominated by Microsoft. Finally, the mere fact that so many copies of Windows were shipping to users (whom OS/2 advocates viewed as uncritical and uninformed), coupled with the fact that so many in the industry had so much riding on the success of OS/2, created conditions ripe for so many trying to take matters into their own hands. The only spark that was needed for this combustible situation to ignite was an example of evangelism provided by the "new IBM" - a few employees who took "empowerment" seriously, able to coordinate their efforts through participation in TEAMOS2 FORUM, an internal IBM discussion group) - and passionate supporters outside IBM who adopted the ideas and modeled the behaviors of those who were early activists within IBM..
See also
- Apple evangelistApple evangelistAn Apple evangelist, also known as Mac evangelist, Mac advocate or Apple fanboy is a promoter of Apple products such as the Macintosh, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad. As a group, the followers are called the Cult of Mac....
- Comparison of Linux distributionsComparison of Linux distributionsTechnical variations of Linux distributions include support for different hardware devices and systems or software package configurations. Organizational differences may be motivated by historical reasons...
- Comparison of operating systemsComparison of operating systemsThese tables compare general and technical information for a number of widely used and currently available operating systems.Because of the large number and variety of available Linux distributions, they are all grouped under a single entry; see comparison of Linux distributions for a detailed...
- Computer zealotry
- OS-tanOS-tanThe OS-tan is an Internet phenomenon or meme that originated within the Japanese Futaba Channel. The OS-tan are the moe anthropomorphism/personification of several operating systems by various amateur Japanese artists...
- Security-evaluated operating systemSecurity-evaluated operating systemIn computing, security-evaluated operating systems have achieved certification from an external security-auditing organization, such as a B2 or A1 CSC-STD-001-83 "Department of Defense Trusted Computer System Evaluation Criteria" or Common Criteria certification.Note that meeting a given set of...
s - Security-focused operating systems
- Software warsSoftware warsSoftware wars describes a state where software authors and users argue over which software is best for a purpose and should thus be used by everyone for that task....
- Technical evangelist
- XvsXPXvsXPMac vs Windows is an online operating system comparison wiki run by James Scariati and Michael Moriarty.-Overview:The site compares competing operating systems Windows Vista and Mac OS X v10.5 through over 100 different topics...
- Linux adoptionLinux adoptionLinux adoption refers to new use of the Linux computer operating system by homes, organizations, companies, and governments, while Linux migration refers to the change from using other operating systems to using Linux....
- After the Software WarsAfter the Software WarsAfter the Software Wars is a book by Keith Curtis about free software and its importance in the computing industry, specifically about its impact on Microsoft and the proprietary software development model....
External links
- Writing On Your Palm: Ford vs Chevy
- Mac, Windows War Ends in Truce
- Mac vs. Windows (Dead link)
- Computing's Holy War
- A simple argument for the Mac
- "Should I Buy OS/2 Warp?"
- "Why Linux?"
- Linux advocacy documents team?
- MacInSchool's list of Mac advocacy articles
- A site dedicated to showing why people use certain OSes
- "Mobile OS"