As I mentioned in my last little tirade, I'm in the computer field. This is not an entirely accurate description; I'm a geek. My last girlfriend referred to my computer as "the other woman." I have been known to spend hours fiddling a new program... or weeks with a shell or operating system. My current timesucker is Linux.

For those who aren't into computers, and for those computer people who spent 1998 locked in a closet and missed out on the tons of press it's been getting, Linux is a UNIX-like operating system put together by a loose collection of programmers all over the world. The source code (the actual programming language) is freely available on the internet; any one can download it and modify it to meet their needs. These modifications are then distributed and shared so that they may be enjoyed by the whole world.

Linux has been around for a while-- since 1991, which is forever in the computing world. It actually predates Windows, the current reigning champion of operating systems. In many ways is it is superior to that product; it's more stable, it's faster, and it gives the user a lot more control over the computer. Oh, and it's free; you can copy, distribute, and even sell it as long as you don't hide the source code. It's been called an operating system for the people-- it gives people choices that they don't have under Windows. The choice is what draws a lot of people to it; Microsoft has spent a lot of time and money taking choices away from people, and a lot of people resent it.

Wait-- I can hear those voices again. "Cat," they're saying, "isn't this supposed to be a Wiccan essay?" But some of you have twigged to it already. There's a lot of similarities between the situation of Linux and Microsoft and the situation of Wicca and Christianity. Not to mention the fact that Wicca is about as close to "Open Source" as a religion can get. But the point to which I'm getting is that there are a lot of mistakes being made by both sides; they're pretty similar as well.

Firstly, we'll talk about the public figures. On their side, to name one figure who gets as much visibility as he can, is "RMS"-- Richard M. Stallman. While I agree with a lot that RMS says, the man is a PR nightmare for the Linux community. He stands on his podium (looking like a wookie that did a lot of drugs in the sixties), calls himself "Saint Ignucius of the Church of Emacs", and tells the world that it's wrong (not a bad idea, but actually wrong) to run proprietary software (i.e., software without its source code publicly available and that you can't legally copy). He stops just short of advocating software piracy on the Free Software Foundation website. He says that it's wrong to put passwords on a system. You can't expect companies like IBM, Compaq, and Dell to ignore someone who shouts about socialism and the evil of big corporations. And to make matters worse, he wants Linux to be called GNU-Linux. GNU, a suite of free software that RMS was instrumental in developing, makes up a large part of the software on Linux systems, and he's not incorrect in saying that without GNU there would be no Linux as we know it today. I don't think it should go into the title because no matter how you pronounce it (guh-NOO or just NOO), it sounds stupid. It's just not good PR. We of the Linux world acknowledge you, Richard, now quit trying to take more credit than you deserve... or don't you realise that without Linux, nobody would give a damn about GNU anyway? RMS is trying to grub for publicity, and he's causing minor little divisions in the Linux community.

On our side we've got a lot of fruitcakes. I'll resist pointing fingers at the Pagans, mostly because I can't impress you with my opinion whilst insulting people you might hold as Icons. And, well, that's part of the problem. We've come to hold many of these people as sacred, as embodying the religion rather than just being fellow practitioners. Our people can dress like something out of a bad horror movie, and it just makes it that much harder for us to point out how the Halloween image of witches isn't accurate. They spout their personal beliefs as the core of Wicca, and they're just giving the rest of us a bad name.

Which moves us to the next little bit-- Linux is divided into many distributions; all work off the same basic code but are packaged differently. Each distribution has its own advantages, comes with different applications. There are also different interfaces for the graphical side of Linux. The arguments you can see about these different distributions and interfaces get rabid. For an operating system that's about choice, there certainly is a lot of "you can't do that" going on. There is one suite of applications, called KDE, that presents a rather user-friendly interface and adds a lot of functionality where other suites do not. There's another, called Enlightenment, that is highly customizable and just visually awe-inspiring. KDE has a lot of enemies in the Linux camp because there are licensing restrictions on it. Enlightenment may be totally free, but it's kind of buggy and drags the system down. (It's still in beta.) Each has its own merits, but no one seems interested in hearing any criticism of their chosen suite or praise of one they disagree with. These people want their interface or distribution to be the interface or distribution.

Wicca has its different traditions and practices. For example, some of us practice skyclad, myself included. I think it gives me the most freedom, and there are a lot of other benefits associated with it. But that's my way; it doesn't mean it's the only way. But I hear arguments, online and off, about how it's the only way. Or how it's totally wrong. I also hear people describe things as part of the religion, such as polygamy. Now although I don't practice it, I believe in polygamy as long as everyone involved is aware of it and cool with it. But it's not a Wiccan thing; it's just that Wicca allows for it. The fact of the matter remains that I don't represent the whole Wiccan comunity when I say these things, and it would be simultaneously shallow and harmful for me to stand up and tell the world that this is Wicca. But lots of us do just that.

The next comparison is dealing with the "opposition", and this one lines up on several fronts where both the Linux and Wiccan communities are doing it wrong.

The really vocal Linux advocates hate Microsoft with a three-shaded passion. They don't skip an opportunity to pick fun at Microsoft. Websites and e-mails abound bashing 95, 98, and NT. I'll admit up front that I'm one of these folks, but at least I can rationally admit that there are many people for whom Windows meets every need. The thought of my mother trying to configure a Linux box-- much less put it on the internet-- is enough to send me into hysterical laughter. But she can install and configure Windows 95 by herself. And since she shuts the system down when she's not using it, she doesn't really need that kind of stability.

As for the Wiccan community, we certainly spend a lot of time bashing Christianity. And it's worse in our case because it doesn't do anybody any good. It's not like insulting a Christian's religion is going to make them convert, and it certainly isn't going to make them think highly of Wiccans. And the fact remains that although we have a lot of misgivings about Christianity, it makes a lot of people happy. So we need to get out of their faces.

And in both the Linux and Wiccan situations, it isn't necessary, or even good, to wipe out the "opposition". All either side really needs is to peacefully co-exist with the other. To take the choice away would make us as bad as them. There are a number of Christians who would see Wicca wiped out, but they by no means make up the majority; let's just concentrate on getting along with the common decent Christian and let the zealots be discovered as such. The Linux community has it worse, since Microsoft deliberately sets things up so that coexistence is difficult. (Anyone care to tell me why both 95 and 98 installations disable any multiple boot managers I happen to have on my system, and why the DOJ didn't bother to bring that up in court? OS/2 and Linux both come prepackaged with the ability to go on different drives and partitions and handle your boot smoothly, whereas Microsoft products won't even install onto a secondary partition.)

On the subject of choice, there's one thing we can learn that Linux community is doing right. When alternative operating systems such as BeOS, Solaris, OS/2, and FreeBSD make advances, the Linux community recognizes their victories as something all who promote choice can share in. We as Wiccans tend to be a little snobby of our non-Wiccan brothers and sisters, even when their religions are similar. (I've lost track of the number of times I've been told that those who practice Druidism or Asatru are Wiccans who think they're too good to call themselves Wiccans.)

The Linux community has come a long way, and it doesn't have that much farther to go. We as Wiccans have also come far, but we've got more ahead of us... let's see if we can learn from the strengths of a similar movement. And from its mistakes.

© 1999 by Cather "Catalyst" Steincamp