Enough with the elitist crap

[beeph]

You shouldn't ever write when your agitated, but here goes.

Bitcoin is not just for Linux users
Think about whether you fancy yourself as part of the "technological ruling elite". Bitcoin has nothing to do with any OS. All people should be able to freely use and enjoy this technological advancement. Different OS's represent different user groups, and those groups may differ from you in many ways. They probably differ in technical expertise from yourself. The solution isn't to make them just like you....

Stop Blaming the victims
It's already well known that for every hack some portion of the blame will rest on the victim. No doubt, they will also be blaming themselves. Most likely they were running windows, and they didn't do X, Y, or Z. Instead of trolling their loss, show some empathy, and work out what we have learned. See if theres anyway the 'bitcoin system' could be set up to avoid these kinds of losses (to go hand in hand with 'user education').

Stop being so God-damn defensive
We are all indebted to the people who develop bitcoin. Still, they are men and women, not Gods. If you see a new comminuty forming around Bitcoin (as is happening), and they have different needs, roll with it. Just say, "yes, the client (or documentation, or whatever) can always improve. We are working on it, and would love to hear your ideas". If we start setting up sacred cows its only encourages more trolling on 'both sides' when in reality were on the 'same side'. Case in point, having to know that you even have a wallet.dat file, let alone that is unencrypted, is a area of bitcoin that can be, and is being, improved. Just admit it. If you do admit it, dont worry - it doesn't mean all of bitcoin will go down as a failure for all of time.

Clearly the bitcoin community has seen a rapid increase of users that differ somewhat from the initial users. There are growing pains. Can't we all just get along? *Group Hug*.

I used to work as an engineer in the automotive industry and I'd love to do a design where your engine cylinders shoots out thru the dashboard into your skull because you were too 'stupid to notice your engine timing was dangerously off'

Then when it happened blame the soccer mom driving.. oh wait but we intend to have an economy without women right? I  mean women dont buy things righ?

[theymos]

Bitcoin is not just for Linux users

If anyone claims that Bitcoin is somehow associated with Linux, remind them that Bitcoin was originally developed on Windows, and the first version was Windows-only with no command-line at all.

[error]

I used to work as an engineer in the automotive industry and I'd love to do a design where your engine cylinders shoots out thru the dashboard into your skull because you were too 'stupid to notice your engine timing was dangerously off'

Then when it happened blame the soccer mom driving.. oh wait but we intend to have an economy without women right? I  mean women dont buy things righ?

Ah, but that sort of attitude got us the useless "Check Engine" light. (And Microsoft Windows, which is full of "Check Engine" lights, AND randomly shoots engine cylinders into your skull.) There has to be somewhere to meet in the middle?

As for Bitcoin, you certainly don't hand your prototypes to a random soccer mom off the street, right? At least not outside of carefully controlled studies. Bitcoin is barely past the prototype stage as-is, and the press got hold of it long before it was really ready. The result has been Bitcoin's last four or five months of history. What would happen if Motor Trend or Car & Driver laid hands on your prototype?

[Nescio]

The BTC community is/was largely made out of extreme tech geeks.
As such, there will be a large proportion of people with asperger/autist tendencies, social insensitivity, irritation and other "flaws".

http://www.theonion.com/video/autistic-reporter-train-thankfully-unharmed-in-cra,20098/

Speaking of Asperger's: http://www.theonion.com/articles/bill-gates-grants-self-18-dexterity-20-charisma,837/

If anyone claims that Bitcoin is somehow associated with Linux, remind them that Bitcoin was originally developed on Windows, and the first version was Windows-only with no command-line at all.

The ideas that drive Bitcoin have decidedly more affinity with the ideas behind Linux than Windows though.

Linux users lie if they say they have never done this: log in as root and 'make install' on something you just downloaded.

I don't think anyone claimed that. Lots of Linux users don't even remember the root password BTW, and use sudo instead. Which is not quite the same as running as root, or Administrator as it may be. And most Linux users will use the official, signed repositories to install software from.

Bullshit, if people install viruses and use infected pirated shit is not Microsoft fault.

The mindset is. Look beyond the product and see the motives driving it. The fundamental difference between Microsoft and something like Linux will not only have influence on the product and how it behaves (Linux lets you do anything, Microsoft views their customers as the enemy (DRM)), but ultimately the mindset of the user as well. Think of the generic response to bullshit copy protection that makes it impossible to play the game you paid for: piracy. This devalues everything in the Windows world and instills a throwaway culture that is destructive in every sense, including security. Rocketfella illustrates above: "If your account gets cracked and is used for spam, you can create another email address and continue with what it's about: communication." - "Well, computers get slower over time, I just have to buy a new one or hand mine over to my neighborhood geek to fix it". Also, it doesn't matter if their HDD breaks. They don't have backups, but the files on their computer weren't important to them anyways and all their important holiday photos are on facebook anyways. - Incidentally, Facebook just threw away a whole bunch of user photos because they were uploaded by some third party software that got too many dislikes (the pictures that were uploaded through them, not the software..).

Windows apologists should realize that Microsoft is the Federal Reserve of computing and just maybe they don't deserve to be supported. Same goes for Facebook but that's another story. In practical terms Windows may finally be getting more secure technically, but the business model invariably taints the user which eventually results in diminished security.

I'm not advocating people use Linux for 'over 9000 security!', but simply because in the long run humanity is better off with it than with Windows.