Yesterday on Reddit, I saw a post titled “How to install Internet Explorer 6, 7, and 8 in Linux”. Why would anyone want to do such a thing? Seriously?
Okay, do something fun… look down at the very next blog post on this very site. Okay. All in good fun. Ha ha. I made this computer look like Windows 95. Ha ha. I even made Firefox look a little like IE 4. Ho ho. Back to reality.
This is actually about installing THE actual fucking windows versions of IE 6, 7 and 8 on your Linux box. Using WINE of course, and PlayOnLinux. But OH MY GOD WHY???
That’s like writing a how-to on how to knock your eyeballs out of their sockets with a rusty spoon you just found sticking out of a dead squirrel. Or giving tips on how to acquire Hepatitis A, B, and C through one unforgettable train ride downtown.
Granted, some of the comments on the site pointed out that this was for web development, but haven’t we come to the point where the HTML standards we have actually matter and Microsoft’s de-facto-non-standards don’t?
No?
Fuck.
Well, sort of related to this brow-furrowing and head shaking WTFedness is a news story my dear old Dad had to tell me about. I didn’t see said news story, but he basically warned be about malware coming from Estonia.
I then tried to explain to him the differences between Windows and Linux, and what an operating system is. To make my point clearer I settled on a couple of (rather terrible) analogies:
- I don’t get Windows malware for the same reason he can’t understand insults in Chinese
- I don’t get Windows malware for the same reason that his DVD player can’t play his VHS tapes
Bad analogies, like I said. And I didn’t even touch the nuances of the issue, or mention that Macs and Linux PCs can be compromised with malware and hacked too, it’s just way harder.
But I think I got my point across a little bit.