Web review: Linuxsucks.com sucks

I thought maybe whoever registered linuxsucks.com was just joking. Or maybe the site was a plant, bought and paid for by Linux PR professionals to make Windows users look bad.Face it, it would be possible to come up with a halfway decent hate site aimed at Linux. There has to be at least a handful of people who weren’t resourceful enough to stick with Linux, but who possess enough journalistic and design/layout talent to set up a professional looking Web site.

Maybe it wasn’t worth it to those people. Anyway, it appears that the site is not a joke or a plant, but an effort by one Kevin Gough to impugn the integrity of our favorite OS. As you may have guessed, I don’t think he’s doing a very good job. Mr. Gough is also the purveyor of KG Computer Services, which is “a software development house with over 20 years of experience.” We don’t know what he started developing on, and the KG Computer Services Web site doesn’t provide any information — just a bunch of Hypermart pop-up ad banners, but we have a feeling it’s Windows all the way now.

Which is fine, but what is the point of linuxsucks.com? It calls itself the place where frustrated and former users sound off. But the site doesn’t do much of anything other than list gobs of posts that seem to be a collection of drivel from the dregs of both camps. There’s also a few loaded statements on the front page, like “ASP.NET will crush Linux once and for all. It will blow Unix/Linux away as a web server platform,” and “Windows XP: You’ll want it even more after trying Linux.” It’s classic troll, but it’s not backed up by facts or even a sane argument.

There’s even a link that’s labeled “Mr. T thinks Linux sucks too!” It’s one of those stupid sites that takes your html and changes the dialect.

Even more befuddling is the linuxsucks.com store. I was hoping to see some T-shirts, ball caps and coffee mugs emblazoned with the linuxsucks.com logo. Instead, I found a Harry Potter boxed set, Madonna CDs, baby cribs???! At least keep it on topic, for crying out loud!

More acceptable would be a site that offered “frustrated users” true alternatives and solutions to their problems, and also was a bit more honest about the shortcomings of Windows and other Microsoft products. I guess that would be a bit ridiculous to expect from a site called linuxsucks.com (note: turn off javascript in your browser or you’ll be redirected to another site), though.

However, to back up my claim that linuxsucks.com looks like a joke, take a look at the anti-Windows counterpart to this site, windows-sucks.com. It’s well organized, looks like a professional did it, and the webmaster can put together a coherent paragraph. Not only that, but it lists dozens of alternatives to Windows for people who are looking, and REAL, on topic merchandise — and even free email forwarding for those of you who want @windows-sucks.com instead of whatever it is you use now.