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Laptops with Stickers

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Re: Laptops with Stickers

#571

Post by TRiG_Ireland »

_fat_santa wrote: post #556
naIak wrote: post #428

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To me stickers on laptops are as tasteless and kitschy as tattoos. I would never get a tattoo for the same reason I would never put a sticker on my laptop. Besides nobody gives a shit about your stupid political opinions or the software stack you use.

Personally I keep one Linux sticker on my laptop, less about expression and more a conversation starter. It's something that 99% of people won't notice but for the 1% that notices it's a nice conversation starter when everyone is bored (ie waiting at the airport)

When I next have a working laptop (I currently use a desktop and a phone), I'll probably stick on a Linux sticker and something from Discworld (probably the "Anthill Inside" sticker, intended for that purpose).

Re: Laptops with Stickers

#572

Post by raudette »

tectonic wrote: post #233

My laptop has stickers, one of which is a photo of my previous laptop and its stickers. One of those is a photo of the laptop before that…

Like my primary storage, with the old storage in a sub folder.

There's still a WP51 folder in there somewhere...

Re: Laptops with Stickers

#573

Post by ghusto »

Good lord, what a load of curmudgeons some of you are.

Decorating things makes them look pretty and covers up the corporate free advertising. It's not any more complicated than that.

The hate on political stickers I get though.

Re: Laptops with Stickers

#574

Post by 2OEH8eoCRo0 »

SparkBomb wrote: post #533
Defletter wrote: post #470

> Your real middle class refuses to show any but the most bland books and magazines on its coffee tables: otherwise, expressions of opinion, awkward questions, or even ideas might result. -Paul Fussell, Class The greyification of our lives, the loss of whimsy and kitsch and being too afraid to be a little cringe, I get the sense that a lot of people associate "growing up" as the loss of any and all expression: we wak…

It has nothing to do with that. A good portion of these stickers are to do with things that are political or quasi political. What tends to happen is that a lot if times people have been burned in someway for supporting an idea or a cause. This is often because people have been fooled by charlatan, or it was later revealed that things were more complicated or different than they were led to believe. Cringe and why pe…

[flagged]

Re: Laptops with Stickers

#575

Post by SparkBomb »

q3k wrote: post #554
SparkBomb wrote: post #550

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If someone's idea "fun" is putting a sticker on your laptop, then they really need to get out of the house more often.

It's just some stickers on a piece of equipment, why are you making this so complicated?

The problem is that it isn't just stickers on a piece of equipment.

A lot of these laptop stickers are either tech stacks (which are usually a form of advertising for a corporation), quasi-political messaging or outward political messaging.

I've partially explain this in my OP and other replies under this subject, but I and many other see them as a warning sign of things that are much more worrisome. I am naturally suspicious of any "corporate fun stuff" which is what a lot of this has turned into. That was accurately portrayed for what it is in office space with the "16 pieces of flair". Anyone who calls this out as suspicious will have someone like yourself saying "what is the problem? just a sticker".

Re: Laptops with Stickers

#576

Post by technothrasher »

izzydata wrote: post #568

I think the most interesting aspect of this is how divisive something as innocuous as putting stickers on a thing is. What causes people to have a strong opinion on this one way or another? Personally I don't find it hard to put stickers on things because I am worried about being silly, but I find defacing an otherwise clean object difficult. Like getting a brand new car or phone and trying very hard not to get a scr…

I would never put stickers on my laptop, or my car, and I certainly wouldn't get a tattoo. But that's just who I am. I definitely don't understand getting upset at others doing these things. If it makes them happy, who cares?

Re: Laptops with Stickers

#578

Post by bArray »

Worth noting is that there is a non-zero number of political stickers on these laptops, and they seem to all tend towards the far-Left. It could make one wonder about the general political leanings of hackers and open source contributors.

Why is it important? A lot of projects took a stance on Russia-Ukraine [1], GitHub blocked the entirety of Iran [2] and I don't doubt that codebases now take a stance on Gaza-Israel.

The top-middle says "NAZI HACKERS FUCK OFF" [3]. They likely mean a new definition of "Nazi", and that could include you. Why point out this sticker particularly? Because it is directly aggressive towards a hacker they perceive to hold that label, and that they have labelled that group with one of the worst possible labels. By doing so, they can justify pretty much any level of aggression through the use of dehumanisation (ironically, a method employed by the Nazis).

The Python Software Foundation refused $1.5mn in funding [5] because they could not agree to be non-political. They would not agree to act without favour. Maybe today this doesn't concern you, but look more closely at the stickers of the people that have infiltrated these institutions. Do you think that you will indefinitely remain on the "good side"?

The Linux Kernel's previous Code of Conflict [6] was quite a rational approach, it was a market place of ideas (contributions) where they did battle. There was no barrier to entry and everybody would be critiqued equally, in the single objective of creating the best possible kernel. Diff this with the current Code of Conduct [7] where there is a barrier to entry, and the focus is on the feelings of the people and not on the quality of the kernel.

We should keep politics out of code entirely, and the quality of the code should speak for itself.

[1] https://github.com/petrussola/help-ukraine-open-source

[2] https://www.reddit.com/r/git/comments/ci6ydi/github_banned_a...

[3] https://stickertop.art/content/images/2025/11/IMG_4529-2.jpe...

[5] https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/software/python-reject...

[6] https://lwn.net/Articles/635999/

[7] https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/process/code-of-condu...

Re: Laptops with Stickers

#579

Post by charlieo88 »

SparkBomb wrote: post #446

I used to put stickers on my desktop PC and laptop when I was in my early 20s. Then I realised my laptop was kinda free advertising for whatever companies product I had stuck on the back. Now it seems have come very "corporate cringe", similar to the 16 pieces of flair at Chotchkie's. It also looks a bit childish IMO.

Back in the day, a coworker would replace the "Intel Inside" on his computer with a sticker using a similar style that read "Evil Inside".
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