Operating system advocacy

Operating system advocacy is an attempt to increase the awareness and improve the perception of a given computer operating system. The motivation behind this is often to increase the number of users of that system, the assumption being that more users will lead, directly or indirectly, to greater improvement in the operating system ("OS"). The term is most commonly used to refer to OS's that are in the minority of usage, to compare to the OS that the majority already use. A further assumption often made by OS advocates is that most of the users of the majority OS only use it because they are familiar with it or they are locked in. Advocacy of the majority OS is most often in reaction to the sometimes over-zealous advocacy of the minority OS's.

Specific operating systems

Mac advocacy

Linux advocacy

Nikolai Bezroukov has written an extensive critique, first published as two papers in First Monday, of the Linux advocacy techniques used by Eric S. Raymond, Linus Torvalds, and others, in which he criticizes "bad Linux advocacy" and "Raymondism" on nine grounds:7

Related Topics:
First Monday - Eric S. Raymond - Linus Torvalds

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• gross oversimplifications
• claiming that open source software is the most economically efficient paradigm of producing software and is much better than any alternative method
• emphasizing volunteer development and concealment of the facts about the true economic origin of many popular open source software products including Linux
• a holier than thou attitude, disrespect of other developers
• explicit and/or implicit personal attacks on RMS
• attempts to contribute to Linus Torvalds' "cult of personality".
• claiming that open source software has intrinsic higher quality than closed source commercially developed software.
• blah-blah-blah about world domination.
• overrating open source security.

In contrast, Bezroukov endorses the Linux Advocacy Guidelines as defining "good Linux advocacy".

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David A. Wagle describes three approaches to converting new users to Linux (which he calls the "Nearly One True OS"):8

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• the OS/2 revisited approach
• the suck it up approach
• the delayed skill transfer approach

Wagle concludes that for each approach there are circumstances in which it is the most suitable.

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OS/2 advocacy

OS/2 is the only operating system whose advocates had a (semi-)formal organization, Team OS/2. Team OS/2 was a grassroots organization, begun by an IBM employee but primarily composed of volunteers with no official connection to IBM at all, and by 1998 not formally supported by IBM in any way. Members would promote OS/2 at conferences and in stores, and participate in operating system discussions on Fidonet and Usenet.9

Related Topics:
IBM - 1998 - Fidonet

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Microsoft Windows advocacy

BSD advocacy