• Waffle (unregistered) in reply to :\
    :\:
    I like the stereotyping here.

    [/snip]

    But hey keep your head up if the strip don't work out here Microsoft might have an opening in their FUD department for you. :)

    I like the stereotyping here.

    :\:
    So whats next a strip on how all Latino's eat rice and beans while everyone of African decent love to eat fried chicken and BBQ all the time?

    You mean they don't ?

  • Freddy Bob (unregistered)

    That should be "anatomically correctly". "Correct" is an adjective and not the adverb which would have been needed to modify the verb. Quibbles aside though, Mandatory Fun Day sucks dogs' balls.

  • Zdenek (unregistered) in reply to :\

    "communist software developers who are all long haired stallman types and that no money can ever be made from an open source project"

    Hearing "stallman" and "no money can ever be made from an open source project" in the same sentence is a bit weird (given that Stallman from the very beginning advocated the idea of making money from oss, and did it himself).

  • (cs)

    Comic opinions: seen better, seen worse. It's mostly the material that's lacking at the moment; it's old. The visual style is a bit fussy for my taste, but that has more to do with my taste than it has with your artwork, I suppose.

  • Anonymous Coward (unregistered)

    Only negative comments?

    I think the cartoons are way cool! Keep 'em coming! They're gonna be very (ahem) popular.

    captcha: populus

  • Tex (unregistered)

    First and foremost: Poor graphics. The storyplot may be trivial in webcomics, as far as graphic side ls done well. But when the drawings sucks, nothing can help you.

    Second: The strips simply doesn't fit to the page layout. They disappear between articles, ads. It should be always in the same place.

    So, in summary: good idea and nice try, but there are still many to accomplish.

  • (cs) in reply to Schnapple
    Schnapple:
    Yes, Google makes lots of money using open source software.

    Google makes lots of money using open source software, not writing or selling (or otherwise peddling) it. That's the whole world of difference.

  • (cs) in reply to alexgieg
    alexgieg:
    Come on, guys. It's clear today's comic is about pro-OSS teen fanboyism. Normal guy gets a job, fanboy sees that as treason, but still needs money from normal guy. It's simple 3-step humor that maybe could have been done better, but it's clear.

    Unfortunately, it's just not funny.

    The only people who seem to be amused by it so far are those who think that free software in the real world is created by 16-year-old prats like this one - it isn't (and I've never met a kid who acted like that, although I have encountered more than a few actual free software developers).

    Free software is partly created under corporate sponsorship, but mostly created during the evenings and weekends of people who have jobs doing something else.

  • (cs) in reply to Zdenek
    Zdenek:
    "communist software developers who are all long haired stallman types and that no money can ever be made from an open source project"

    Hearing "stallman" and "no money can ever be made from an open source project" in the same sentence is a bit weird (given that Stallman from the very beginning advocated the idea of making money from oss, and did it himself).

    I'm curious what actual money Stallman made from OSS, besides from getting paid for talking about virtues of OSS.

  • (cs)

    I think the comics would be waaaay better without comment threads. It kind of ruins the joke if it gets talked about too much

  • Kyle Bennett (unregistered)

    The real WTF is this comic...

    Sorry, somebody had to say it.

    But, hey, there's room to grow into it. The artwork doesn't matter if the content is good (look at XKCD). The problem with a lot of techie comics is that the authors think a comic can be good by being about IT, when in fact for any comic to be good, it has to be about people, whether they are in a tech setting or otherwise (again, look at XKCD). Caricatures are not people with ideas, they are ideas pretending to be people. A well-drawn caricature will never be as good as a stick-figure real person.

  • (cs)

    I dunno, I like the comic so far. I like the other guy's comic in this thread, too. Hilarious that the Linux guy was wearing a hammer-and-sickle shirt, because we all know that Richard Stallman and anyone who supports open-source is a commie.

  • mizchief (unregistered)

    The Real WTF here is how so many people are complaining bout their posts being deleted. It appears one of mine was as well. If someone is cursing or just being overly offensive you may have grounds. Otherwise you are dooming your own site. Your stories and code samples are amusing, but ultimalty it's the community that keeps your site alive.

  • (cs) in reply to Schnapple
    Schnapple:
    Mateo_LeFou:
    FOSS is celebrating it's tenth anniversary in May of this year, as I recall

    So is the development of Duke Nukem Forever. Something existing for ten years isn't indicative of anything except that the money hasn't run out yet.

    mmm... reading comprehension

  • (cs) in reply to Tony Green
    Tony Green:
    "I don’t know how to use apostrophe’s"

    Oh the irony!

    I was assuming he did that on purpose as a joke. Or, as you say, for the irony.

  • (cs) in reply to NeoMojo
    NeoMojo:
    Are you looking for a great chef? I know how to make an ommlette.
    Now if you could only spell it.
  • (cs) in reply to Target
    Target:
    Well, and I know this will piss a lot of people off, isn't FOSS sorta communism anyway? The "fundamentalists" anyway. ..

    Communism claims that private property is illegitimate. Free culture/software claims that ideas and knowledge are not property.

  • G Money (unregistered)

    This comic is like the "yogurt parfait" at McDonald's. WTF? I came for a Big Mac and fries.

  • (cs)

    So, which of the two characters is the naive, stupid, idealistic one, giving away his time and expertise in exchange for next to nothing?

  • Anonymous (unregistered) in reply to alegr
    alegr:
    Zdenek:
    "communist software developers who are all long haired stallman types and that no money can ever be made from an open source project"

    Hearing "stallman" and "no money can ever be made from an open source project" in the same sentence is a bit weird (given that Stallman from the very beginning advocated the idea of making money from oss, and did it himself).

    I'm curious what actual money Stallman made from OSS, besides from getting paid for talking about virtues of OSS.

    Besides him being an actual businessman that gets paid for consulting companies?

    It's funny that people criticizing FOSS the most and trying to portray it as communism know the least about it.

  • V. Ulanynov (unregistered) in reply to Mateo_LeFou
    Mateo_LeFou:
    Target:
    Well, and I know this will piss a lot of people off, isn't FOSS sorta communism anyway? The "fundamentalists" anyway. ..

    Communism claims that private property is illegitimate. Free culture/software claims that ideas and knowledge are not property.

    Communism is primarily about the use of the group against the individual. Consider what is commonly called a "team" in the corporate world.

  • Ben (unregistered)

    I think it's hilarious...don't be turned off by negative comments.

  • Gryc (unregistered)

    Well I wont rant to you about stereotyping open-source developers as jobless bums, since everyone else has done such a good job of it.

    Instead, I'll give you some drawing tips. 1.) Put a double, or even triple-width black outline around each "important part", like each person for instance. 2.) On the hands, I can see exactly what you think while drawing them, "onefingertwofingerthreefingerfourfingers". Try three, it might look a little more natural (as counterintuitive as that is.) 3.) Watch the detail. That detail in his shirt just turns to muddled pixels.

  • lolcat (unregistered)

    STOP MAKING FUN OF ME!

  • SomeCoder (unregistered)

    To agree with someone else in this thread: Yes, stop comparing this comic to xkcd.

    There are tons of differences between the two. The primary one is that xkcd is at least a little funny.

  • Give It Some Time (unregistered)

    Wow, this crowd is brutal. A web comic that deals with software development on this site is like throwing a bleeding man in a pool full of sharks. Holy $***!

    Give it a little time. Maybe the comic will just rehash stereotypes and not be fit to line the bottom of a bird cage, or maybe one of the characters is a walking stereotype inside an otherwise intelligent comic. At only two strips in, it's pretty hard to tell.

    Personally, I think the "The Leader in the Linux Revolution" line hints toward something deeper. Linux is a community with several prominent figures, but has no "leader" in the traditional sense.

    That is, George Bush was(n't) elected leader, and I don't like him, but he's got the power of the government to force me to follow him. Richard Stallman is also a "leader", but the people who follow him are the people who want to follow him; everybody else is free to do their own thing.

    Becoming a "leader" in Linux for it's own sake is tilting at windmills. The community follows leadership, not "leaders". Moreover, becoming "The Leader" (the one and only?) only serves to underscore the faulty premise of the basic idea.

    Give the comic time to show its colors.

  • (cs) in reply to Anonymous
    Anonymous:
    alegr:
    Zdenek:
    "communist software developers who are all long haired stallman types and that no money can ever be made from an open source project"

    Hearing "stallman" and "no money can ever be made from an open source project" in the same sentence is a bit weird (given that Stallman from the very beginning advocated the idea of making money from oss, and did it himself).

    I'm curious what actual money Stallman made from OSS, besides from getting paid for talking about virtues of OSS.

    Besides him being an actual businessman that gets paid for consulting companies?

    It's funny that people criticizing FOSS the most and trying to portray it as communism know the least about it.

    Yes, exactly, I want to know about what exact piece(s) of software he is consulting. Not counting consulting about how to make money from consulting about OSS; that reeks of MLM bullshit.

  • Gonzalo (unregistered) in reply to alegr

    Have you any idea about how much Google invests on Open Source Projects? I think you don't.

  • (cs) in reply to Gonzalo
    Gonzalo:
    Have you any idea about how much Google invests on Open Source Projects? I think you don't.

    invests != makes money

    Most likely the opposite.

    Addendum (2008-02-13 13:33): You know, they can afford it.

  • feep (unregistered) in reply to :\

    I like the stereotyping as well :)

    Most funny things are offensive to somebody. Take it as a good sign. For the record, it made me giggle.

  • (cs)

    I liked this strip...

  • Covarr (unregistered)

    Dude, it's in black and white, and not very detailed. How on earth did you manage to make it 107.44 KB? Using Photoshop's "Save for Web" I managed to make this exact same strip only 34.36 KB, less than a third the file size without any noticeable loss in detail (PNG-8, Grayscale, Diffusion, 88% Dither, 8 colors).

  • JoC (unregistered) in reply to Tzimisce

    Not a bad start! Keep at it!

    I like having something new to look forward to on the site.

  • Anonymous (unregistered)
    Yes, exactly, I want to know about what exact piece(s) of software he is consulting.
    Then why don't you just mail him? It's not like that his e-mail address is hidden.

    And what the hell is that tone, either way? Noone has any obligation to tell you where they work or how much money they make, (not that it matters since that wasn't your argument) if you like to poke your nose in such things, then maybe you should make yourself an IRS office worker? What you can learn by just using google is that most of his time is consumed by managing the FSF. (and before you go and say "AH HAH! A manager! Nothing like a programmer." maybe you should try to actually manage something as big)

  • M.C. Sarbanes-Oxalot (unregistered)

    the comic is OK, but please, can we discontinue this? i don't come here for amusing nonfiction. i don't come here for web comics. there are zillions of sites that serve them, and i have a regular lineup of favorites.

    like most of us, i come here for the sort of terrifying hilarity that only the black comedy of reality can bring -- that's the real Daily WTF.

  • adk (unregistered)

    LOLZ for sure, FTW!

    That is, laughter at all the self-righteous schmucks with an overblown sense of their own importance, posting about how terrible this webcomic is because it skewers their own sacred pig. Surely you realize by now George, make a bunch of the same old tired M$ jokes and then you'll get all the happy comments you can handle! But for heavens' sake, don't make the same old tired jokes about the 'free, as in speech' movement or players - clearly a violation of the groupthink!

    And for the record, different tools meet different business needs. Evangelists belong in a church, where their choice to reject reason and simply spout dogma about their faith may actually increase the tithes they take from the masses.

  • M.C. Sarbanes-Oxalot (unregistered) in reply to M.C. Sarbanes-Oxalot
    M.C. Sarbanes-Oxalot:
    i don't come here for amusing nonfiction.

    fiction. i mean. i don't come here for amusing fiction. sorry.

  • (cs) in reply to Covarr
    Covarr:
    Dude, it's in black and white, and not very detailed. How on earth did you manage to make it 107.44 KB? Using Photoshop's "Save for Web" I managed to make this exact same strip only 34.36 KB, less than a third the file size without any noticeable loss in detail (PNG-8, Grayscale, Diffusion, 88% Dither, 8 colors).
    Why do you care? Got a 1200 baud connection?
  • Fargo (unregistered) in reply to JimM
    JimM:
    I love the fact that "you buy" is a statement rather than a request ;^) Interestingly, I have this conversation regularly with my wife (who is co-director in my company): I tell her about some fantastic software idea I have, she asks if there's a market for it, I say I was going to release it open source, and she asks me how I'm going to pay the rent. I'd love to have ethics, but I just can't afford them :(

    Did you know that you can sell OSS? Because you can. You have to release the sources, sure, but you can sell the finished product. Depending on what it is you can offer a pay service to customize the product, and so on. Don't blame the open source model on your fear of failing.

    If you really have a good idea, work on it in your spare time and get a couple other people involved. Will it work the first time? Probably not, but very little does.

  • (cs) in reply to alegr
    alegr:
    Gonzalo:
    Have you any idea about how much Google invests on Open Source Projects? I think you don't.

    invests != makes money

    Most likely the opposite.

    Addendum (2008-02-13 13:33): You know, they can afford it.

    WTF?!

    alegr:
    Google makes lots of money _using_ open source software, not _writing_ or _selling_ (or otherwise peddling) it.
    Which one is it then? Does google make money or lose money with OSS? Let me answer that for you.

    Gonzalo is stating that Google invests money into OSS, which is true. You've previously stated that Google uses this OSS to make money, which is also true. Therefore, both Google and OSS developers make money through mutual benefit; i.e. Google pays OSS developers to continue development on software that Google uses which makes Google more money to invest in the development of the OSS which makes Google more money which ... etc. etc.

  • (cs) in reply to Anonymous
    Anonymous:
    Yes, exactly, I want to know about what exact piece(s) of software he is consulting.
    Then why don't you just mail him? It's not like that his e-mail address is hidden.

    And what the hell is that tone, either way? Noone has any obligation to tell you where they work or how much money they make, (not that it matters since that wasn't your argument) if you like to poke your nose in such things, then maybe you should make yourself an IRS office worker? What you can learn by just using google is that most of his time is consumed by managing the FSF. (and before you go and say "AH HAH! A manager! Nothing like a programmer." maybe you should try to actually manage something as big)

    So far, I haven't found he actually had any successful software business (that paid his bills) based on OSS. What he does is just politicising, getting paid for "promoting virtues of OSS". Peddling Linux to Hugo Chaves. "See - we got those capitalist suckers to work for free to create this wonderful free software for all the technically-challenged dictatorships".

  • (cs) in reply to :\
    :\:
    I like the stereotyping here. So whats next a strip on how all Latino's eat rice and beans while everyone of African decent love to eat fried chicken and BBQ all the time?

    How about a stereotype where anonymous posters can't detect satire even when it crawls up their nose and lays an egg?

    I don't see the humor in it basically your taking a large segment of the software development community stereotyping them as communist software developers who are all long haired stallman types and that no money can ever be made from an open source project. You do realize their are many open source developers out there making good money alot more then $42k a year.

    "Alot" isn't a word. How about a stereotype where Open Source developers generate a lot of crap code (and I've seen it), and can't spell, besides?

    But hey keep your head up if the strip don't work out here Microsoft might have an opening in their FUD department for you. :)

    Shouldn't you be at Berkeley decrying the presence of a Marine Corps recruiting office?

  • Anon Fred (unregistered) in reply to Fargo

    Did you know that you can sell your pubic hair? Because you can. You have to release the roots, sure, but you can sell the finished product. Depending on what it is you can offer a pay service to customize the hair, and so on. Don't blame the free pubic hair model on your fear of failing.

  • (cs) in reply to :\
    :\:
    ...basically your taking a large segment of the software development community stereotyping them as communist software developers who are all long haired stallman types...
    Not the entire segment of the community - just the part that posts comments on blogs and online forums.
  • (cs) in reply to V. Ulanynov
    V. Ulanynov:
    Mateo_LeFou:
    Target:
    Well, and I know this will piss a lot of people off, isn't FOSS sorta communism anyway? The "fundamentalists" anyway. ..

    Communism claims that private property is illegitimate. Free culture/software claims that ideas and knowledge are not property.

    Communism is primarily about the use of the group against the individual. Consider what is commonly called a "team" in the corporate world.

    I don't know that anyone but you and maybe Sean Hannity would take seriously this assertion about what communism is "primarily about".

    But yes, if one sprinkles weasel words ("sorta" communism, "primarily about") around, you can link any idea to communism, Kevin Bacon, etc.

  • Josh (unregistered) in reply to Schnapple

    Schanpple,

    Let me step back for a minute. What I think you're doing is ascribing the traits of a very vocal few to the whole group.

    I don't know about you, but when I'm considering Open Source, I'm considering software that actually works. I'm not talking about Bob's Music Player, or Steve's Video Player, or Joe's Uber Spreadsheet, all of which never passed version 0.01 because they don't have the discipline to get things done. I'm talking about stuff that is used in production - Linux, OpenOffice, the Gimp. The folks who contribute to those projects probably have a far deeper understanding of the value of freedom and the economics of software production and usage, the problems inherent with Open Source and commercial software, than "Oh noes micr0$0ft suxx0rs l1nux r0xx0rs". You are committing the most grave and unfortunate of logical errors by grouping these folks in with the like of Richard Stallman, and it insults the intelligence of those who have the understanding I'm talking about.

    You're absolutely right, this kind of idealism is not compatible with most companies that want to "make a lot of money". But neither is most of the idealism and naievete regarding many different topics, that comes with many college graduates with little practical experience. But it doesn't matter, because the idealism you talk about either a) makes the company a bundle of money if it works, or b) is quickly quelled with the experience that comes with a corporate dev position.

    But, alas, this type of prejudice is your loss as these kinds of folks build entire companies from the ground up with no software acquisition costs. The goals of a) Changing the world with Open Source and b) paying your mortgage are not mutually exclusive, if you're smart enough to create the right reality; it's a common error to assume that our character traits are present in others, and it's one you seem to be making now.

  • (cs) in reply to halber_mensch
    halber_mensch:
    alegr:
    Gonzalo:
    Have you any idea about how much Google invests on Open Source Projects? I think you don't.

    invests != makes money

    Most likely the opposite.

    Addendum (2008-02-13 13:33): You know, they can afford it.

    WTF?!

    alegr:
    Google makes lots of money _using_ open source software, not _writing_ or _selling_ (or otherwise peddling) it.
    Which one is it then? Does google make money or lose money with OSS? Let me answer that for you.

    Gonzalo is stating that Google invests money into OSS, which is true. You've previously stated that Google uses this OSS to make money, which is also true. Therefore, both Google and OSS developers make money through mutual benefit; i.e. Google pays OSS developers to continue development on software that Google uses which makes Google more money to invest in the development of the OSS which makes Google more money which ... etc. etc.

    Here is the deal. They use Linux to run their server farms. This saves them a lot of money they would spend otherwise on proprietary system licences. They make money sellind ads, not by selling OSS. Their indexing software is proprietary; they don't open its source. They finance a lot of OSS developers just for charity sake, not because they make money out of it (they just can afford throwing money on it). Do you still see any contradiction in this picture?

  • Anonymous (unregistered)
    So far, I haven't found he actually had any successful software business (that paid his bills) based on OSS. What he does is just politicising, getting paid for "promoting virtues of OSS". Peddling Linux to Hugo Chaves. "See - we got those capitalist suckers to work for free to create this wonderful free software for all the technically-challenged dictatorships".
    Any example? Because so far you've failed to back anything up. And for God's sake, quit this all communist thing. Stallman is not a communist. Free Software is not communism. If you can't understand things that are so simple, then you're already a lost cause.
  • (cs) in reply to mizchief
    mizchief:
    ...ultimalty it's the community that keeps your site alive.
    There are several who would argue that it's the vast majority of anonymous commenters (and perhaps a small handful of registered ones) who bring down the overall quality of the site.

    Actually, it's Alex paying his hosting bills that keeps the site alive, and it's the content he and his associates post that keeps it "alive". I doubt that the minimal advertising revenue would be in any way affected if comments were disabled entirely and all the /. kiddies couldn't vent their frustration. Since they don't believe in paying for things anyway, they're not going to click on any ads.

  • Anonymous (unregistered)
    That is, laughter at all the self-righteous schmucks with an overblown sense of their own importance, posting about how terrible this webcomic is because it skewers their own sacred pig. Surely you realize by now George, make a bunch of the same old tired M$ jokes and then you'll get all the happy comments you can handle! But for heavens' sake, don't make the same old tired jokes about the 'free, as in speech' movement or players - clearly a violation of the groupthink!
    Actually, weak jokes about Microsoft would earn just as much negative comments from people here. I think it's just you who is hurt with his feelings for MS, because everything I've seen here is ranting about poor, used jokes.

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