I am most emphatically not looking for offensive comments. But "towel head" is a derogatory term for a person of middle-eastern descent. So what did you take this comment to mean ..."makes me wonder if you wear a towel on your head?" Does it mean that you maybe just got out of the shower and are drying your luxuriously long hair? Michael Ray Havens wrote: >Towel........ Ohhhhhhh! A turban. I didn't see it as racist. Are you looking >for 'offensive' comments? > >On Thursday 02 December 2004 09:04 am, Lee Einer wrote: > > >>Phil Mattison wrote: >> >> >>>>From what you have written, I get the clear feeling that these are your >>> >>>positions: >>> >>> >>>>1. Linux kernel & shell are a-ok, no problems. >>>>2. X based desktop environments (kde/gnome/etc) too slow, buggy, crappy. >>>>3. Free alternatives to commercial products are not good. >>>>4. Commercial motivation = good products. >>>> >>>> >>>Close, but I would say: >>> >>>1. Linux kernel & shell are a-ok, no problems. >>>2. X based desktop environments (kde/gnome/etc) [tend to be] too slow, >>>buggy, crappy. >>>3. Free alternatives to commercial products tend to be slow, buggy, >>>crappy. 4. Commercial motivation does not necessarily result in good >>>products, but of necessity tends to place more emphasis on identifying >>>and meeting the needs of a specific market. Open source projects seem >>>often to be done by hobbyists who then want the satisfaction of seeing >>>other people benefit from their work. There is nothing wrong with that >>>but it does not foster the same level of discipline you find in most >>>commercial projects. The GPL can be both a blessing and a curse. >>> >>>Does that mean I never use free software? Certainly not. Far be it from me >>>to make "perfect" the enemy of "good enough." But neither will I fool >>>myself into believing that GPL is good and commercial software is evil, >>>even if I do think it is usually overpriced. >>> >>>I guess the reason for my initial comments were that I was thinking about >>>the recent experience of a friend of my son's who was interested in Linux. >>>I recommended Mandrake 9.2 because I found the installation to be quite >>>painless. He had trouble downloading the ISO images and making a CD set >>>that would install, and so went out and spent $100 on a shrink-wrapped >>>distro, I think it was SUSE. He couldn't get that to install either. I >>>recommended going to one of the install-fests but I don't think he wanted >>>to wait that long. After this experience he probably is now an avowed >>>critic of Linux. >>> >>>To those who wish to make Linux into a religious crusade I would say the >>>reward isn't necessarily worth the effort. If you were offering eternal >>>life that might be another matter. But to go around spitting on people >>>who don't happen to support your agenda makes me wonder if you wear a >>>towel on your head. >>> >>>--Phil M. >>> >>>--------------------------------------------------- >>>PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us >>>To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change you mail settings: >>>http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss >>> >>> >>> >>>But to go around spitting on people who don't >>>happen to support your agenda makes me wonder if you wear a towel on your >>>head. >>> >>> >>Well, the towel would help clean up the spit... of course, some folks >>would not think that's what you were driving at, and would instead take >>the above to be a racist slur against people of arabic or middle-eastern >>descent. That would be unfortunate, as racist remarks tend to brand the >>utterer as both ignorant and mean-spirited. >> >> > > > -- Lee Einer Dos Manos Jewelry http://www.dosmanosjewelry.com --------------------------------------------------- PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change you mail settings: http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss