Linux in '08
July 5, 2007 9:37 PM Subscribe
Is the next President of the United States running Linux? The Democrats love open source and the Republicans love Microsoft.
The Green Party tends towards the abacus.
posted by jonmc at 9:43 PM on July 5, 2007 [1 favorite]
posted by jonmc at 9:43 PM on July 5, 2007 [1 favorite]
Does this provide some insight into their overall candidacy?
No.
posted by brain_drain at 9:46 PM on July 5, 2007
No.
posted by brain_drain at 9:46 PM on July 5, 2007
The Green Party tends towards the abacus.
But only if it's not made of old-growth timber.
posted by FelliniBlank at 9:54 PM on July 5, 2007
But only if it's not made of old-growth timber.
posted by FelliniBlank at 9:54 PM on July 5, 2007
Yeah, I'm pretty sure the decision as to what OS to run was probably made either by whatever random volunteer is running their servers, or whatever ISP they're hosted on. It would be interesting to hear from the candidates what their stance on Open Source software is, but it's going to be a long, long time before we ever get a president who knows a Linux from a BSD.
Unless Gore somehow gets elected.
posted by maus at 9:57 PM on July 5, 2007
Unless Gore somehow gets elected.
posted by maus at 9:57 PM on July 5, 2007
Oh hai, Hitler & Nixon are running Mao's new freeware version of open-source-fuck-everybody. They're really on our side! (Hearts!)
posted by kenlayne at 10:01 PM on July 5, 2007
posted by kenlayne at 10:01 PM on July 5, 2007
Have we actually ever had a president who we can prove directly operated a personal computer (not just looking over a minion's shoulder), regardless of the OS?
posted by FelliniBlank at 10:04 PM on July 5, 2007
posted by FelliniBlank at 10:04 PM on July 5, 2007
I read a few years ago that W uses a mac.
posted by parallax7d at 10:07 PM on July 5, 2007
posted by parallax7d at 10:07 PM on July 5, 2007
Who cares what OS anybody runs? Especially a frigging politician. I don't care what kind of underwear any politician wears either, if any, not even diapers. (Caddis, why did you waste a post on this crap? You know better.)
posted by davy at 10:13 PM on July 5, 2007 [1 favorite]
posted by davy at 10:13 PM on July 5, 2007 [1 favorite]
Elder Bush is supposedly addicted to his Blackberry, if that's saying anything.
Er, "before or while in office," I should have said. I'm sure all the living ones are all techno-something now.
posted by FelliniBlank at 10:16 PM on July 5, 2007
Er, "before or while in office," I should have said. I'm sure all the living ones are all techno-something now.
posted by FelliniBlank at 10:16 PM on July 5, 2007
Besides, this is about what OS their website's host is running, not what they use at home and/or on their personal machines. Though I do think it's cute that no Republican runs his website on BSD, which according to rumor is hardest to crack.
posted by davy at 10:17 PM on July 5, 2007
posted by davy at 10:17 PM on July 5, 2007
Rarely is the question asked: is our children learning reflective, dynamic, object-oriented programming language?
posted by KokuRyu at 10:17 PM on July 5, 2007 [1 favorite]
posted by KokuRyu at 10:17 PM on July 5, 2007 [1 favorite]
If you asked the president if he liked BSD, you'd probably be hauled away by the Secret Service and convicted of violating some decency laws.
posted by aliasless at 10:24 PM on July 5, 2007
posted by aliasless at 10:24 PM on July 5, 2007
Rush Limbaugh and Tom Clancy, both big ol' honkin' Republicans, love themselves some Mac.
posted by infinitewindow at 10:32 PM on July 5, 2007
posted by infinitewindow at 10:32 PM on July 5, 2007
The only things politicians love is power and money.
posted by chibikeandy at 10:48 PM on July 5, 2007
posted by chibikeandy at 10:48 PM on July 5, 2007
I promise to start an armed revolution to support the first candidate who can build him/her self a Gentoo desktop.
posted by cmfletcher at 11:09 PM on July 5, 2007
posted by cmfletcher at 11:09 PM on July 5, 2007
Al Gore's got three tremendous Apple screens going on here.
posted by jourman2 at 11:13 PM on July 5, 2007 [1 favorite]
posted by jourman2 at 11:13 PM on July 5, 2007 [1 favorite]
Does this provide some insight into their overall candidacy?
Yes.
Of course the candidates don't choose their web servers' operating systems.
But they do choose their advisers, who choose the people who choose the technology.
So this list does perhaps reveal something about the candidates, and who they surround themselves with.
The fact that Clinton is the only one among the Dems with a web server that runs on MS says to me that she prefers people who choose established, corporate, heavily marketed options over insurgent, grassroots, under-the-radar options.
But then I knew that already (even before she announced that her official campaign song was something by Celine Dion).
posted by Artifice_Eternity at 12:58 AM on July 6, 2007 [1 favorite]
Yes.
Of course the candidates don't choose their web servers' operating systems.
But they do choose their advisers, who choose the people who choose the technology.
So this list does perhaps reveal something about the candidates, and who they surround themselves with.
The fact that Clinton is the only one among the Dems with a web server that runs on MS says to me that she prefers people who choose established, corporate, heavily marketed options over insurgent, grassroots, under-the-radar options.
But then I knew that already (even before she announced that her official campaign song was something by Celine Dion).
posted by Artifice_Eternity at 12:58 AM on July 6, 2007 [1 favorite]
Here are the double ups:
Biden and Richardson on Interlix
Dodd and Obama on Pair
Gravel and Clark on Voxel
Gore, Giuliani, Paul, Romney, All Rackspace (which is more of a colocation facility compared to the rest, so they probably have some hardcore internal guys working for them also)
Huckabee and (F)Thompson by LNH
McCain and Gringrich by Smartech
Interesting ovelaps. I wonder if any space / service was donated, with the exception of Rackspace, there is a Dems only or Repubs only overlap in the hosting scenes. That or they just share IT guys provided by their respective parties.
posted by mrzarquon at 1:18 AM on July 6, 2007
Biden and Richardson on Interlix
Dodd and Obama on Pair
Gravel and Clark on Voxel
Gore, Giuliani, Paul, Romney, All Rackspace (which is more of a colocation facility compared to the rest, so they probably have some hardcore internal guys working for them also)
Huckabee and (F)Thompson by LNH
McCain and Gringrich by Smartech
Interesting ovelaps. I wonder if any space / service was donated, with the exception of Rackspace, there is a Dems only or Repubs only overlap in the hosting scenes. That or they just share IT guys provided by their respective parties.
posted by mrzarquon at 1:18 AM on July 6, 2007
I will only support candidates who promise to nerf pudding farming.
posted by hoverboards don't work on water at 3:29 AM on July 6, 2007 [1 favorite]
posted by hoverboards don't work on water at 3:29 AM on July 6, 2007 [1 favorite]
It's quite simple, really: The Democrats and Republicans will run whatever OS Bill Gates pays them to run.
posted by ZenMasterThis at 5:12 AM on July 6, 2007
posted by ZenMasterThis at 5:12 AM on July 6, 2007
Of course W uses a Mac....it's got all the main ingredients: gives the perception of hipness, makes you look savvy, allows you to think you're thinkin different, costs a lot.
*written on a Mac, by an Apple investor.
posted by nevercalm at 5:57 AM on July 6, 2007
*written on a Mac, by an Apple investor.
posted by nevercalm at 5:57 AM on July 6, 2007
I'd tend to think that any candidate who gives thought to something like this is pretty much lacking that whole vision thing.
posted by troybob at 6:04 AM on July 6, 2007
posted by troybob at 6:04 AM on July 6, 2007
Republicans do receive more money from Microsoft, on average, than Democrats.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 6:11 AM on July 6, 2007 [1 favorite]
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 6:11 AM on July 6, 2007 [1 favorite]
I'm amused by the idea that ideological differences lead to this. Republicans are better-funded, on average. This means that Democrats have, on average, less funding. So, what does this mean for the campaign budget? A nice, cluster-ready version of Windows 2003 Server? Or, I dunno, the CentOS knockoff of RHEL 5?
I bet that, if we could analyze all of the facets of a given campaign, you'd see the Democrats compromising on cash all the way down the line. Not much, just a little bit here and there. Maybe not a four-color spread. Maybe Asterisk instead of a vendor-loved phone system. More volunteer work, fewer highly-paid consultants.
posted by adipocere at 6:34 AM on July 6, 2007
I bet that, if we could analyze all of the facets of a given campaign, you'd see the Democrats compromising on cash all the way down the line. Not much, just a little bit here and there. Maybe not a four-color spread. Maybe Asterisk instead of a vendor-loved phone system. More volunteer work, fewer highly-paid consultants.
posted by adipocere at 6:34 AM on July 6, 2007
Have you looked at the fundraising totals for this race, adipocere? Your premise is pretty far off, this time around. The Dems are raising *way* more money.
posted by Lazlo Hollyfeld at 6:43 AM on July 6, 2007
posted by Lazlo Hollyfeld at 6:43 AM on July 6, 2007
Maybe this time around, but I recall last time the Democrats seemed to be outfunded by an amount that was staggering. Well, all of the numbers involved are staggering when you're not a millionaire, but you get the idea. Obama is something of a blip in the trend. This is something of an odd year in general - the ratio of Republicans versus Democrats who are serious contenders is way off from the usual.
Take the 2004 Legislative numbers here. Now, I haven't pulled up a spreadsheet or anything, but you can see there's a lot of Republicans at the top, then it evens out towards the middle, and the bottom is populated by Independents, Greens, Libertarians, and Democrats.
It's just a hypothesis, but one I'd bet on more than the idea that ideological interests find their way into the selection of web server OS.
posted by adipocere at 7:23 AM on July 6, 2007
Take the 2004 Legislative numbers here. Now, I haven't pulled up a spreadsheet or anything, but you can see there's a lot of Republicans at the top, then it evens out towards the middle, and the bottom is populated by Independents, Greens, Libertarians, and Democrats.
It's just a hypothesis, but one I'd bet on more than the idea that ideological interests find their way into the selection of web server OS.
posted by adipocere at 7:23 AM on July 6, 2007
Remember how Bush visited Redmond in 2000 and promised Gates that the anti-trust suit would go away if he became President?
And it did.
And so, the reason for Blazecock Pileon's statement of fact.
posted by nofundy at 7:28 AM on July 6, 2007
And it did.
And so, the reason for Blazecock Pileon's statement of fact.
posted by nofundy at 7:28 AM on July 6, 2007
...she prefers people who choose established, corporate, heavily marketed options...
Sounds more like Apple to me.
posted by rocket88 at 7:29 AM on July 6, 2007
Sounds more like Apple to me.
posted by rocket88 at 7:29 AM on July 6, 2007
I'll vote for who they tell me to vote for. It's my duty.
posted by oxford blue at 8:14 AM on July 6, 2007
posted by oxford blue at 8:14 AM on July 6, 2007
I can't vote, but if I could, I'd vote twice!
posted by blue_beetle at 8:19 AM on July 6, 2007
posted by blue_beetle at 8:19 AM on July 6, 2007
Hard core Linux nut here, and I still agree with troybob: I'm not really worried about the next POTUS' choice in operating system - I just want him/her to stop the runaway train before we hit annihilation station.
That being said, I'd love to have a POTUS who was more OS-agnostic. I think that a Linuxer is a bit too much to hope for.
posted by eclectist at 12:30 PM on July 6, 2007
That being said, I'd love to have a POTUS who was more OS-agnostic. I think that a Linuxer is a bit too much to hope for.
posted by eclectist at 12:30 PM on July 6, 2007
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