#52499 - Unpopular Opinions: Agree, disagree?

[wired]

I thought this was one of the most entertaining threads in awhile, so much so that I wanted to see what opinions outraged people as they read them or which ones they thought, "That's so true."

Few ground rules - do NOT turn this into a flame thread. Do not attack anyone individually. Keep it COMPLETELY about the idea the author expressed.

From LaserJock:

Windows isn't that bad, and in many ways is more usable than Linux. (This opinion is unpopular among computer nerds.)"

This isn't a disagreement, mainly just wanting to know why. I actually just dual-booted Linux on my main computer and it has quickly become my preferred OS. I do miss OneNote, but outside of that, I haven't really seen how Windows is more usable. I do agree that it is not that bad - people in the computer world act as though it is the bubonic plague of our time. I think it's a great system, but I am now believing that Ubuntu is superior.

From Cuddlefish

I disagree with the Church's stance on Prop 8, and I would have voted against it if I was a California resident.

I always have a hard time with this. I respectfully disagree with members of the Church who oppose Prop 8. However, it does aggravate me when other Church members use Prop 8 as the litmus test for Church activity. I believe it was Elder Cook who indicated members of the Church could oppose Prop 8 and still remain strong members.

[Waldorf and Sauron]

Maybe you're thinking of this quote by Elder Clayton?

[Laser Jock]

Windows isn't that bad, and in many ways is more usable than Linux. (This opinion is unpopular among computer nerds.)

This isn't a disagreement, mainly just wanting to know why. I actually just dual-booted Linux on my main computer and it has quickly become my preferred OS. I do miss OneNote, but outside of that, I haven't really seen how Windows is more usable. I do agree that it is not that bad - people in the computer world act as though it is the bubonic plague of our time. I think it's a great system, but I am now believing that Ubuntu is superior.

First, so we're on the same page, I was referring to my experiences with Windows XP and several versions of Ubuntu (I started with 8.04, I'm currently running 8.10, and I'm holding off on 9.04--I'll explain why shortly). Also, for anyone that doesn't really care about any of this: this turned into a rather long post, so skip it unless you care about the ins and outs of Ubuntu vs. XP.

With any operating system, there will be a certain amount of tweaking and fiddling necessary. Some do a good job of reducing the fiddling (I hear Max OS X is pretty good), and others don't. You may have guessed, but I'm a pretty advanced computer user, and I'm not afraid of digging into obscure settings and fixing things when they break.

When I used XP, sometimes random things would go wrong. For no apparent reason, something would just stop working, and I'd have to figure out how to fix it. There were also a few default settings that were annoying (like the computer trying to automatically reboot itself after certain Windows security updates).

I've used Ubuntu as my primary OS for around a year now, which I think is long enough to form an opinion on it. My opinion? I've had far weirder things happen when using Ubuntu than XP, and they seem to happen more frequently. Fixing them is usually not very intuitive, either: after doing a few web searches, I usually end up editing a configuration file somewhere.

As an example, occasionally Ubuntu will warn me that it couldn't authenticate updates it was trying to download. Now, I don't really feel good about just blithely going ahead and downloading them anyway; it's possible that the mismatch is because someone had hacked the repository and substituted corrupt versions, and I don't want to risk that.

It took me a while to figure out how to fix the problem, but eventually I stumbled across this forum thread; the first page doesn't have anything useful (except to confirm they have the same symptoms I do), but finally the first post on the second page gave some advice that worked. Hooray! It turns out that I need to delete certain files in a given directory, and that clears the deadlock. Not very user-friendly to fix. This problem still occasionally occurs, and I don't know why. I just delete the appropriate files, and things start working again for a while.

To reiterate: although I had weirdness happen with both operating systems, Ubuntu has given me more and weirder problems than XP ever did. I've been able to fix them, and I'm certainly not afraid of Linux. I enjoy quite a bit about Linux; there's a reason I'm still using it and not Windows, after all. (Actually, there are lots of them, which I can go into if you're interested, but this post is already plenty long.) But which would I recommend to my grandma? Definitely not Linux, unless I lived nearby and could be her personal IT guy.

Oh, and why haven't I installed Ubuntu 9.04 yet? I was actually going to shortly after it came out, but I talked with Cognoscente (who had already installed it). Apparently the drivers that shipped for certain Intel graphics chipsets were horrible--they worked great in 8.10, but were barely usable in 9.04. I have almost the same chipset he does, so I'm holding off until I know 9.04 won't be a major step backwards. (I haven't checked since he told me about it a couple months ago, so possibly the bug has been fixed by now.)

Other things: audio in Linux is notoriously broken (as in, unreliable and buggy). Ubuntu uses PulseAudio, which has some nice features but also some major bugs and terrible latency. Between OSS, ALSA, and PulseAudio, I've had some really bizarre problems when trying to configure things that should be simple. (As an example, Skype doesn't work in 8.10 because of something weird with PulseAudio. At least, it didn't as of a few months ago.)

Some of the problems (like the above Intel driver issue) are hardware-specific. Another hardware-dependent example: my battery life dropped by 1/3 when I switched to Ubuntu. I had a solid 3 hours in Windows; I have almost exactly 2 hours in Linux, and that's after doing everything I can to reduce power usage (dimming the screen, making sure the CPU is being scaled properly, etc.). I've heard from other people that had battery life go up. (However, in talking with my super-computer-geek friend, that's not the norm.)

Again, hardware-related: wireless. Getting wireless to work on a laptop has historically been a major pain in Linux--and that's been my personal experience too.

So if your experience after using Ubuntu for a year is just amazing, then perhaps you got luckier with the hardware you're installing it on. It's also possible that you're just trying to do different things, and you're using stuff that works well while I keep hitting minefields. I know some people who have never had the kinds of problems I've had with Linux, and of course their point of view is just as valid as mine. But it's not easy to tell what kind of experience you'll have, and that unpredictability is a big problem, in my opinion.

[vorpal blade]

None of the opinions expressed outraged me, though I strongly disagreed with some, and strongly agreed with others.

I prefer hot weather.
I like some fast food.
Prison may or may not be a terrible way to change behavior, but in my opinion that is not the primary purpose of prison.
I agree women can and do have plenty of power and influence without other women specifically being aware of it.
I agree with the Church's position on prop 8 (no surprise there).
I agree that there is little or no solid evidence of global warming, and especially little or no evidence that man has any effect on the global temperatures.
I agree that Arizona is not all that hot.
I don't take the Adam and Eve story quite literally.
C.S. Lewis is great.
I disagree with Smeed's view of socialism and capitalism.
I mostly agree with Smeed's view of homosexuality.
All musicians are incredibly overrated.
I went to see some ice hockey and a strange thing happened. During the fighting a game broke out.
I agree that being a gentleman is never outdated.
I agree with the Martin Luther King holiday statement.
Green is overrated.

Well, that's a start.

[NerdGirl]

Opinions that I strongly agree with (there weren't really any that I strongly disagreed with - although I don't like hockey, but I don't really like any team sports):

-Piracy is bad.
-I actually do prefer Windows XP to Ubuntu, but I think Mac OSX is way better than either of them.
-Brussels sprouts are one of my favorite foods, and I eat them almost every day and sometimes for breakfast.
-I would much rather be cold than hot.
-I'm not a fan of fast food either (I can't eat most of it anyway).
-Prison is a terrible way to change behavior (although I realize that it has other purposes and that some people just need to not be in society anymore).
-I don't know that I necessarily agree with the Church's stance on Prop 8 as much as I just sort of wish that the Church didn't have a stance on Prop 8. I honestly don't know what I would have done if I had to vote on it. I definitely disagree with what many Church members interpret the Church's stance to be (and it's been my experience that there's a difference - and I'm not referring to anyone on here when I say that).
-I don't know enough about biology to say to much about evolution (at least not that part of biology), but I'm definitely not a Young Earth Creationist. I'm an astronomer, though, so no surprise there. I believe that Adam and Eve were actual people, but I think much of the Genesis account was simplified and symbolic. I strongly believe that the Scriptures are designed to teach us more about how we should behave than about history or science.
-I'm really not a fan of C.S. Lewis. I like the Narnia books, and his non-fiction is interesting, but just too far away from my own understanding of theology for me to take very much out of it that I didn't already know. I would probably like him better if he wasn't quoted so much in the Church. I generally do find studying religions other than my own very interesting and I find much truth in the writings of people from other religions, but I think because Lewis is quoted so often in the Church, I just can't get past the things I don't agree with.
-I think we should go to Mars (and back to the Moon). Again, big surprise there.
-I think that all economic systems are basically founded on greed.
-I'm not a big fan of patriotism that elevates one's own country above all others. I think that is the opposite of what the world needs. (And what I'm thinking of as I write this is the attitude that overly patriotic Canadians have, not Americans, so I guess it must happen in all countries).
-Being a gentleman is not outdated, and I think women need to stop discouraging men from acting in gentlemanly ways. And now I'll leave that topic before I get on a huge rant. Okay, I'll just say one more thing. If a guy holds a door open for a girl, the girl doesn't need to freak out and feel insulted. The correct response would be to say "Thank you" not "I'm quite capable of opening my own doors"!
-I don't think Wal-Mart is any worse than other major corporations, and it's quite a bit better than some of them.
-It drives me crazy when people answer their cell phones or start texting in the middle of a conversation. And in church. If you absolutely have to take the call because it's an emergency, then excuse yourself and go somewhere else to talk.
-I like raw milk better than regular milk.
-I didn't know what a bumpit was before I read that response, but I ended up buying a set of them on the internet! I have really curly hair that dries funny if I don't carefully pin the top of it while I let it air dry, and I think the bumpit might save me a lot of pinning time!
-I think the so-called "green" movement is not as environmentally as people think it is. For example, those compact fluorescent bulbs that we're all supposed to be using all have mercury in them. That'll be great in landfills (and I highly doubt people will keep them out of landfills).
-I think people need to eat less soy. I don't think it's the superfood that people think it is, and I think that eating a lot soy back in my vegetarian days actually made some of my health problems worse. For anyone who doesn't know what I'm talking about, soy has estrogen-like compounds that some scientists think can screw with your hormones when you are eating large quantities of it.
-And finally, I listen to Christmas music pretty much year-round.

[NerdGirl]

Oh, one more that I forgot to list! I'm not a big Beatles fan. I don't deny that their music is important, I just don't like most of it. I used to, though, and I have a very complicated theory to explain why I don't anymore.

[Cognoscente]

Linux is great, but not without its faults. Watch this great presentation to get a feel for some of the things the open source community needs to work on. It's telling that with 50 dedicated geeks in the audience, it still takes several minutes to get the projector working.

I've loved Ubuntu for the short time I've used it, but since I've installed the Windows 7 beta and later release candidate, I have NO need to dual boot my computer. It's rock solid stable, performs well, and I don't spend hours poring over outdated forum threads looking for the specific driver I need to make my hardware work. (my laptop's microphone never did work...)

In short, Windows 7 is the best version of Windows since, I think, ever. Everyone should give the RC a try.


Oh, btw, I love piracy, I think the girls in the Bumpits ad look silly, I get soapboxy when talking about the corruption of the diamond industry but I despise militant vegetarians, AND I think we Mormons as a culture do ourselves a disservice by being so paranoid and bashful about sexuality. The Latter Day Saints should cling to Truth (Oh Say, What Is Truth is one of my favorite hymns), including great sex, and there's a place for it to be treated with respect without feeling shame. We should learn the biology and mechanics of the process such that our married couples, young and old, are the envy of every other religion out there. In a perfect world, "does it like a Mormon" would be a well-known and highly complimentary aphorism.

[Miss Scarlett]

I didn't know what a bumpit was before I read that response, but I ended up buying a set of them on the internet! I have really curly hair that dries funny if I don't carefully pin the top of it while I let it air dry, and I think the bumpit might save me a lot of pinning time!

That made me laugh. Let me know how it goes! I am seriously intrigued by these things.
I am dismayed to find that my "unpopular" opinions are more popular than I'd thought.

[vorpal blade]

Welcome to the 100 hour message board, Miss Scarlett. Since the writers can use whatever pen-name they want, we can only assume that you are relatively new to the Board. But we can’t be sure. Welcome to the board if you are new.

I hate to see you dismayed that your opinions are not as unpopular as you thought. So, in the spirit of making you feel welcome let me disagree with you.

I’ve heard better singers than the singers in the movie Phantom of the Opera, but they still do a good job. Anyways, who cares, they look good.
They did a study to determine whether farmers liked raw milk better than regular milk. Only they did it by adding manure to the regular milk at a milkman’s convention. The farmers overwhelming found the “raw” milk – the milk with the manure – far superior to the regular milk. I’m just not used to “raw” milk.
The oboe sounds awful if played by someone who doesn’t know how to play the oboe. And…no one knows how to play it.
Hunting is great for the hunter, not so great for the hunted. I’ve had missionary companions who never missed a Sunday meeting, except for the opening of deer hunting season.
Get real on the pronunciation of “gauge.”
You can enjoy “It’s a wonderful life” any time you want to. I’ll enjoy it at Christmas time. Ditto with Christmas music. I once heard a radio announcer say that he was going to be playing Christmas music all during the Labor Day weekend, for those who would be driving recklessly and not live to see Christmas. Whatever floats your boat.

Well, I hope you feel better now.

Vorpal

[Nanti-SARRMM]

They did a study to determine whether farmers liked raw milk better than regular milk. Only they did it by adding manure to the regular milk at a milkman’s convention. The farmers overwhelming found the “raw” milk – the milk with the manure – far superior to the regular milk. I’m just not used to “raw” milk.

You mean adding manure to the cow feed?, cause adding manure to the milk sounds disgusting.

Although that could be an explanation for hillbillies; they started added manure to their milk and pretty soon added it to everything else, including their distilled rum.

[vorpal blade]

They did a study to determine whether farmers liked raw milk better than regular milk. Only they did it by adding manure to the regular milk at a milkman’s convention. The farmers overwhelming found the “raw” milk – the milk with the manure – far superior to the regular milk. I’m just not used to “raw” milk.

You mean adding manure to the cow feed?, cause adding manure to the milk sounds disgusting.

Although that could be an explanation for hillbillies; they started added manure to their milk and pretty soon added it to everything else, including their distilled rum.

I meant to say a dairymen's convention. The people doing the study added the manure to the milk. It does sound disgusting to me. The idea was that dairy farmers like the taste of something according to the way they are used to drinking it. When the milk is "fresh" it tends to have bits of manure in it, and that is the way the farmers thought it was supposed to taste, or tasted best, without realizing that it was the manure that made the difference. I helped out on a dairy farm a few times, and I do think we were pretty careful with what fell into the milk can, but sometimes the cow has manure on her udder and is not throughly cleaned before the suction cups are attached, or if done by hand your hands may not be too clean.

I am aware of the practice of "recycling" manure by putting it back in the feed. Cows are rather inefficient in their processing of feed. But that is not what I'm talking about here.

[Damasta]

It really depends on how the milking is done, though. If they use a mechanized dairy parlor, then the milk goes through a filter before it ever ends up in the tank (which is then transferred to a milk tanker). So if they drain a little out of the tank, then it's not going to have a detectable amount of manure in it. If they just go straight from teat to can, then there might be a little more.

Moving on,

I always have a hard time with this. I respectfully disagree with members of the Church who oppose Prop 8. However, it does aggravate me when other Church members use Prop 8 as the litmus test for Church activity. I believe it was Elder Cook who indicated members of the Church could oppose Prop 8 and still remain strong members.

I agree that it shouldn't be a litmus test. And while this was all going on, the Church made it clear that members of the Church who disagreed wouldn't receive disciplinary action--unless they actively and publicly denigrated the leadership of the Church while doing so. I think that is where the real litmus test should be. If you descend into apostasy, then of course you have no business remaining a member of the Church. But I think the majority of members who opposed Prop 8 didn't engage in actual apostasy. I personally supported the principles behind Prop 8 (I couldn't vote on it because I'm not a Californian), but I cringe whenever it comes up in my Elders Quorum because it's usually championed by members who are a lot more absolutist about it than the Church was and I fear they'll alienate other members who don't share their opinion. And they're usually unaware of this quote from the LDS Newsroom (which shows the Church is a lot more tolerant than many would believe):

The Church does not object to rights (already established in California) regarding hospitalization and medical care, fair housing and employment rights, or probate rights, so long as these do not infringe on the integrity of the family or the constitutional rights of churches and their adherents to administer and practice their religion free from government interference. source

Moving on again,
I'm a pirate, argh.
I'm totally anti-Bumpits. They are a plague upon Utah.
And anti-Mac OS. So overrated.
I don't like hot or cold; mild autumn weather for me, please.
If global warming is real, it's too late to do anything about it.
Evolution is fact. Genesis is redacted, poetic, and symbolic. A literal reading is actually a secular reading, not a spiritual or inspired one.
C. S. Lewis is okay.
Socialism and capitalism are equally evil. But not equally viable. Capitalism ultimately will fail when we run out of resources. Socialism will fail before that. It is only currently viable because it rides the coattails of capitalism's momentum.
The Beatles? Bleh.
Soccer or nothing.
I still try to be a gentleman (like my parents taught me to be)
MLKJ did great things but doesn't deserve his own holiday.
Green (and organic) are just advertising campaigns. And carbon credits are just plain silly. Hey Al Gore? What if instead of buying carbon credits from others, you sold your multimillion dollar home and lived in a trailer? Or stopped flying in private jets all over the world and took the bus? Walk your talk, man.
I like Wal-Mart better than other department stores. But sometimes their quality does suffer.
The worst of the worst "I love my country more than you" patriots are Texans, not Canadians. But every time I see a maple leaf flag on someone's backpack I have to resist the urge to be annoyed that they (the people who put those patches on their backpacks) exist.
I could do better at my cell phone/live conversation etiquette. But sometimes that's the only way out of a live conversation I've been buttonholed into.
Brussels sprouts are an abomination.
Some fast food is highly tasty and digestible.
Prison is for punishment and for removing unsavory elements from the population so they can't prey upon the weak. Not for reforming the prisoner. The few methods that exist to alter the behavior of a mentally normal adult are rightfully illegal.
Prop 8 doesn't discriminate against homosexuals. It regulates and defines an institution (marriage). Gays and lesbians can still get married. It just has to be to someone of the opposite gender. Besides, there is no fundamental right to marriage.
Laws should protect people from one another, but not from themselves.
Updating your Facebook status several times a day is beyond obnoxious.
I like to hunt with my dad. But I'm not fanatical about it.
I actually enjoyed August Rush. You just have to watch it as a child, not as an adult.

[vorpal blade]

Just to clarify my comment on Adam and Eve. I believe they are real people who really lived. The manner of creation of Adam, and especially of Eve, is figurative, not literal. I don't believe that Adam and Eve had any literal ancestors who lived on this planet.

[Whistler]

I'm not really a fan of august rush either. at first I was like "oh cool!" and then I'm like, "um, this is impossible." Even prodigies have to practice.

[Nanti-SARRMM]

I'm not really a fan of august rush either. at first I was like "oh cool!" and then I'm like, "um, this is impossible." Even prodigies have to practice.

It clearly means that August was actually an alien, sent to boast to humans about their better musical abilities.

[Damasta]

My only issue with August Rush was that the relationship was based on a one night stand. Thus the parents getting back together and making it work (especially given the fantasy elements) were so tenuous and intractable that the filmmakers couldn't come up with a good dénouement and just ended the movie where they all find each other. In other words, every time they wrote the next scene it came out so ludicrous that they finally just scrapped it and ended the movie at the climax.

[vorpal blade]

Last Friday I drove across Arizona on Interstate 10. It was 112 F. I take back what I said about Arizona not being hot. It was hot.

[Cuddlefish]

My only issue with August Rush was that the relationship was based on a one night stand. Thus the parents getting back together and making it work (especially given the fantasy elements) were so tenuous and intractable that the filmmakers couldn't come up with a good dénouement and just ended the movie where they all find each other. In other words, every time they wrote the next scene it came out so ludicrous that they finally just scrapped it and ended the movie at the climax.

I think it would have benn great if they included the next part: Mom - "August! Hi! I'm your mom! And this is your dad!" Dad - "I have a kid?"

[Nanti-SARRMM]

I think it would have benn great if they included the next part: Mom - "August! Hi! I'm your mom! And this is your dad!" Dad - "I have a kid?"

Ha ha, that's true, he never knew he was a father. All he knew is that he was at some cool outdoor concert led by a kid who plays better guitar than him and found that girl that he had been thinking about recently that he slept with some 12 or so years before.

[Cuddlefish]

As long as we're on the subject of unpopular opinions, the <i>Twilight</i> series is a bunch of badly written books that qualify as emotional porn.