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Comment by blub | Hacker News Reader

Garbage.

1. The mere fact of using Linux is not a proof of intelligence since the hard things in Linux are harder because they are more tedious, less user friendly or both (e.g: The Luxury of Ignorance: An Open-Source Horror Story).

2. Being able to afford a Macintosh is not what I would call rich and the implication that having money is a virtue in itself is disgusting.

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The joke (ha ha only serious) is the common views that Linux is intimidating & Macs are pricier. You should be disgusted - the phrasing is pointedly manipulative.

That's the point of most humor: you exploit a stereotype to get a laugh.

As a rule of thumb, the difference between classy humor and not-classy humor is that with the former, you put the joke on yourself (not on others) and/or you point out that the stereotype has holes in it the size of an NSA machineroom.

The joke isn't that Linux is complicated or Macs are cheap. The joke is that she (Microsoft) makes you THINK (keeps you "by convincing you") that Linux is complicated (e.g., rumors about hardware incompatibilities) and Macs are expensive (e.g., those "I'm a PC" ads).

When you think about it that way, it makes the analogy so much worse (or better, I suppose).

Do you notice a difference between clicking on tabs and check-boxes and editing text files? What is easier to remember - the sequence of clicks or format and syntax of configuration file? =)

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