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Re: Freedom and Data (was Gender, Representativeness and Reputation in StackOverflow)

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On Tue, Jul 24, 2012 at 1:56 PM, rusi <rustompmody@gmail.com> wrote:
> "How many of you use Linux?" I ask.

The awkwardness is in the definition of the question. Many of the
products that I buy will have, at some point, been carried by a truck,
but I would answer "No" if someone asked me if I use a truck. Would
you say that you "use", say, Windows 2000? Do you even *know* if any
of the web sites you use are built on it? What about Cisco Router,
Model <insert product identifier>? I personally have no idea what
networking hardware my ISPs use, nor should I care.

When I do a Google search, I don't "use" their Linux; I use only the
TCP/IP socket connection. If they were to rip out Linux tomorrow and
put in a perfect replacement that they wrote in-house, I wouldn't know
and, to be honest, wouldn't care. In the same way, they don't care if
I write my own web server; they'll crawl the documents just the same.
Doesn't mean they "use" my custom web server, and certainly doesn't
mean that everyone who does a search that's affected by my content has
"used" that server.

> Their true platform is the Internet.

Indeed it is. Operating system means nothing; IP transmissions mean
everything. Your platform is a TCP socket (or, less commonly, a stream
of UDP or other packets).

ChrisA

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Gender, Representativeness and Reputation in StackOverflow Alexander Serebrenik <A.Serebrenik@tue.nl> - 2012-07-23 05:51 -0700
  Re: Gender, Representativeness and Reputation in StackOverflow Terry Reedy <tjreedy@udel.edu> - 2012-07-23 17:44 -0400
    Re: Gender, Representativeness and Reputation in StackOverflow Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2012-07-24 01:30 +0000
      Re: Gender, Representativeness and Reputation in StackOverflow Devin Jeanpierre <jeanpierreda@gmail.com> - 2012-07-23 22:51 -0400
        Freedom and Data (was Gender, Representativeness and Reputation in StackOverflow) rusi <rustompmody@gmail.com> - 2012-07-23 20:56 -0700
          Re: Freedom and Data (was Gender, Representativeness and Reputation in StackOverflow) Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2012-07-24 14:28 +1000
            Re: Freedom and Data (was Gender, Representativeness and Reputation in StackOverflow) rusi <rustompmody@gmail.com> - 2012-07-23 22:26 -0700
        Re: Gender, Representativeness and Reputation in StackOverflow Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2012-07-24 05:34 +0000
          Re: Gender, Representativeness and Reputation in StackOverflow rusi <rustompmody@gmail.com> - 2012-07-23 22:56 -0700
            Re: Gender, Representativeness and Reputation in StackOverflow Alexander Serebrenik <A.Serebrenik@tue.nl> - 2012-07-24 00:26 -0700
            Re: Gender, Representativeness and Reputation in StackOverflow Steven D'Aprano <steve+comp.lang.python@pearwood.info> - 2012-07-24 08:33 +0000
      Re: Gender, Representativeness and Reputation in StackOverflow Chris Angelico <rosuav@gmail.com> - 2012-07-24 14:19 +1000
  Re: Re: Gender, Representativeness and Reputation in StackOverflow Evan Driscoll <driscoll@cs.wisc.edu> - 2012-07-23 17:01 -0500
  Re: Gender, Representativeness and Reputation in StackOverflow Ethan Furman <ethan@stoneleaf.us> - 2012-07-23 15:09 -0700
    Re: Gender, Representativeness and Reputation in StackOverflow Alexander Serebrenik <A.Serebrenik@tue.nl> - 2012-07-23 15:14 -0700
      Re: Gender, Representativeness and Reputation in StackOverflow Gene Heskett <gheskett@wdtv.com> - 2012-07-23 20:01 -0400
    Re: Gender, Representativeness and Reputation in StackOverflow Alexander Serebrenik <A.Serebrenik@tue.nl> - 2012-07-23 15:14 -0700
  Re: Gender, Representativeness and Reputation in StackOverflow Terry Reedy <tjreedy@udel.edu> - 2012-07-23 18:14 -0400

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