Linux Liaison @brandon@fosstodon.org

#introductions Hello everyone!

I joined fosstodon because I have enjoyed Linux since #slackware in 1995 and am a firm believer in the benefits of the #opensource model from an #infosec point of view.

I’ve run Linux variants personally and professionally for over 20 years as well as many others. Most of my experience has been from an admin side but over the past 8 years more from the cyber defender aspects.

Other interests are drone videography and all things infosec.

A man will be along shortly to tell me I'm wrong.

Sup fosstodon

This all also happens to be why it will always be funny.

I have very rarely been taken seriously for my interest in computers. I have, however, been told to stick to make up and Barbie dolls on several occasions.

The guys who don't get the joke are often the same guys who consistently jump in to save you unsolicited because they think you're incapable by default or who tell you this isn't for you.

This happens even if you're serious and just talking about it. I started mentioning getting back into computers and all of a sudden, before I even started joking about it, I was getting whole threads telling me what Linux is.
At one point I got told I should try Ubuntu because debian with xfce could be difficult for me. I'd already mentioned using it for over a decade.

This is true of women in STEM the world over, the presumption they couldn't possibly know and so using it as a chance to either flex or white knight.

"Haha Google is FOSS because I can view source in chrome" is absurd. "Microsoft Windows is FOSS because i didn't have to pay to upgrade." No one is going to call a guy on those.

The punchline to the entire joke is the guys telling me to shut up because i'm obviously clueless.

The reason tech bro trolling works, even if you are astoundingly egregious about it, is internalized misogynistic presumption of incompetence.

If a guy makes a joke about Linux, open source, whatever, that's really painfully obvious they're pretending to not know what they're on about, they're not likely to get many responses confronting them. Even if they seriously don't they often don't. Someone hyperfeminine? There's no fucking way they could know what they're talking about.