Scalix and Digg

This is the 2nd time typing this. Apparently Windows Movie Maker is causing deadlock problems on my computer...

The other day the below post came through Digg.

http://www.digg.com/linux_unix/Scalix_is_sneaking_Linux_in_through_the_corporate_mailbox

It was talking about an Open Source Exchange alternative. I do want to know how these things stack up, so I checked it out. The article just talked about the e-mail stuff. I want to know more (shared calendaring, contacts, etc.) so I had to check out scalix's website. I came across a link for a "product demo", so I clicked on it. I got the following error message:

"No native WebEx Event Manager is available for your platform."

That's the entire message. No list of supported platforms, contact numbers, or any other information on how to debug, etc. Taking what they said literally. I thought this meant that they didn't support Linux (in my case Ubuntu) and felt that the fact this was an OSS application, it warranted a comment. Being who I am, I felt the need to be sarcastic.

I got a response saying that message "really meant" I needed to install Java. Now, I have a big problem with stupid error messages, especially ones that mean one thing when they say something else. This waranteed another response, and I continued my sarcastic trend by comparing the message to women.

Apparently, my original replier didn't like this (even though I thanked him for deciphering the message for me). Instead he calls me an "ass" and says I'm immature.

Now, I admit being sarcastic is hard to detect over the Internet. Being sarcastic on Digg is no exception, and this is the ideal case to prove that. I should have simply:

1) Asked how to get the webex thing working on Ubuntu and
2) Thanked the person for telling me and wondered why the error message couldn't have helped me further
3) Erased the wondering part, and then said something along the lines of "this is why Linux rulz and all others droolz...blah"

This is why Linux isn't making it. Instead of addressing the valid points I had, the fellow Luser decided to chastize me for pointing them out. Now granted, this isn't the offical "WebEx support center," but it still illustrates a point that's bad in all crappy software. The people writing it praise its good points, hide the bad. Then when someone points out the "man behind the curtain" (in this case the weak points) they attempt to discredit him/her rather than fixing what needs to be fixed, or at least admiting that it needs to.

So, I've learned not to be sarcastic on Digg.

Hopefully developers will learn to produce things that won't lead me to make sarcastic comments.

Somehow, I doubt that's going to happen.

BTW, blogger's auto complete labeling could use some work. It completes a lot more than needed even when I erase what it just put in...