HOWTO Encourage Women in Linux

[Jared]

Linux is about free software.
Linux is about GNU and FSF and GPL and BSD and MIT and Artistic Licenses.
Linux is about slackware, Debian, Red Hat, Mandrake, linux-from-scratch, Gentoo.
Linux is about open source development.
Linux is about doing something practical with your time.
Linux is about KDE and GNOME and Mozilla and sourceforge and CVS.
Linux is about coding standards.
Linux is about C and C++ and PHP and Perl and Python and Ruby and so on.
Linux is about compiling and kernels and drivers.
Linux is about CAT5, ethernet, autodetecting, and ifconfig.
Linux is about command lines and man pages.
Linux is about independence from proprietary vendors.
Linux is about helping other people do complex things with computers.
Linux is about conf files and etc and home and superuser and root.
Linux is about grep, ping, POP3, and emacs vs. vi.
Linux is about Bruce Perens, Richard Stallman, Linus Torvalds, Alan Cox.

Linux is not about gender.

<rant>

I read your howto.

Go ahead. Make Linux about gender if you want. But as
for me, I'd prefer people who think it's about
gender realize that the way to bring women into Linux
is not by the road of accusing men in Linux of
nebulous forms of sexism, an argument that cannot be
argued against (logically, it's called begging
the question, to demand that someone quit being
sexist when in fact they may not be sexist).

Rather, if you want more women in Linux, take a
cue from how geeks get into Linux; they come in by
force of willpower alone, not because someone held
the door open for them. Let women come in without
a chip on their shoulder about how oppressed they
are. Oppression is universal. For God's sake, Linux
is composed of GEEKS, nearly every single one of us
completely lacking in social skills because we
were 'oppressed.'

Ain't none of us complain about it, either. We
just found JTolkien, DAdams, RHeinlein, and
others to commiserate with and got on with things.

Life is hard. Get over it.

I read your howto.

Truly. Last thing we need is someone to come tell
a bunch of geeks we have no social skills. We
already know that. We've known it since we were
three years old. Tell me something about the new
AMD chip, but don't waste my time telling me I
need social graces. You want social graces in me,
meet me at church. You wanna know about Linux,
meet me at the KCLUG.

Remember me? I'm the kid _ALL_ the girls ignored
on the playground. Don't try to fix me at age 33
what you coulda fixed at age 8 with a little grace.

In short, Linux chix may want to consider that
nearly every single person who works with Linux
has "issues" equal or greater than chicks... and
we ain't complaining. We're coding and installing
hardware and lots of other things, but one thing
geeks do well: we complaineth not.

I read your howto.

As for your complaint of the few folks who are devotedly
sexist: why single out Linux for a problem that's
endemic to the whole culture? I'm sorry they exist. I'm
sorry you'll think this letter is sexist. I'm sorry about
a lot of things. But I am not God; can't fix it all. So I
do what I do with integrity, knowing that's all I can do
to fix things.

And when I blame others for my problems, that's when
I'm breaking things, not fixing them.

I read your howto, actually hungry for some solid advice
on how to bring women in to Linux. All I found was your
desire to bring Linux to women. I'm looking for another
howto; one that respects the fact that Linux is independent
of gender issues. Show me what women LIKE about Linux,
and I'll read it. Show me what women don't like, and
I've read it already, so excuse me for being bored
with your discovery that you don't like things.

In short, women are welcome in Linux; on the condition
we talk about Linux, not gender.
</rant>

-Jared