Tuesday, 10 December 2013

Would an operating system with a political agenda put you off using it?

My review of antiX has caused a small amount of controversy.

An anonymous user left a comment stating that in a previous version of antiX the default browser had links to nazi websites.

The comment was jumped upon by a number of readers who stated that this user was ill-informed.

I opened a browser today within antiX and checked the bookmarks provided and here are the list of links that are included

I have been asked to remove the comment but I have declined to do so. My personal view is that everybody has had a chance to have their say and it is for each person to make up their own mind with regards to the validity of the claims.

The point of this article is not to question whether antiX has fascist links but to question why there are politically motivated links in the bookmarks section at all.

The comments about nazi leanings may be factually incorrect but the developer has left the operating system open to criticism by providing the links in the first place.

The antiX operating system worked very well for me and I gave it a good review but my question to you is:

Would the inclusion of politically linked propaganda put you off using an operating system? 




3 comments:

  1. Like BLAG Linux? http://www.blagblagblag.org/

    ReplyDelete
  2. No it wouldn't. But I would probably remove all the links, since politics is not my thing really. Of course these days such an OS could come under the radar of NSA and other European spooks but that happens with Windows too so...

    ReplyDelete
  3. From what I see of the bookmarked sites, IMO, more are left leaning to the point of communism. Certainly not pro-Nazi. Be aware that Nazism was also a left leaning party with a heavy doses of nationalism and totalitarianism. Nazism was all about conforming to the state-run consensus, no deviation, no dissent. See the Wiki page for a fuller explanation.

    It has an Anti-Zionist and pro Arab in its pick of bookmarked sites - this does not mean it is Nazi, it merely means it is not pro Zionism. So what?

    If some find this distro too much for their sensitivities to tolerate then leave it alone but please allow it to be reviewed on its merit as a Linux distro, and not as a political opinion piece.
    Would I use a distro that has a political edge?
    Depends on how forthright the politics is - overall probably not if it were too strong. This distro is hardly ramming it at you as the bookmarks are easily removed.

    ReplyDelete

Feel free to comment on any of the blog posts. Please try to be constructive.

Offensive messages will be removed as will blatant adverts for misleading products and sites.

Thanks for visiting my blog