Make Shirts, Not War?

We've all experienced it at one time or another: the dreaded platform war. Whether it's fighting with Windows users, Mac devotees, or just those who favor another distro, every one of us has been put in the position of defending the honor of our chosen OS — and we might, just might, have launched a few battles ourselves. One software company, however, wants to bring that to an end, and is launching — of all things — a line of t-shirts aimed at encouraging computer lovers to beat their swords into digital plowshares.

Likewise Software, which develops software that unites diverse operating systems through Microsoft's Active Directory, believes that the ongoing platform wars are causing "destroyed relationships and recriminations" — not to mention, "evil eyes" — within the computer culture, but has hope that their new line of t-shirts will help bring that to an end. The shirts, which bear the slogans "Peace" and "End the War" along with the ☮ & ✌ signs and the names Linux, UNIX, Windows, & Mac, are intended to raise awareness within the IT community. Awareness isn't all they're raising, however, as 100% of the proceeds will be donated to charities that help victims of war — real war.

Likewise CEO Barry Crist told reporters the company picked t-shirts because "that's pretty much all most system administrators wear" — a stereotype, we think, but nonetheless most likely a good choice. Crist hopes the shirts will move wearers to "actively declare" support for ending the platform wars, much the same way the company's products promise to bring harmony to customers with divergent technologies. How likely t-shirts are to end the infighting among the IT-crowd we cannot say, but we are moved by the words of our good friend Lisa Hoover of IT blog DaniWeb: "[Q]uit your bellyaching and go buy a t-shirt."