The disorder suffered by a particularly egregious variety of bigot, those who believe that the marginality of their preferred machine is the result of some kind of industry-wide conspiracy (for without a conspiracy of some kind, the eminent superiority of their beloved shining jewel of a platform would obviously win over all, market pressures be damned!) Those afflicted are prone to engaging in flame wars and calling for boycotts and mailbombings. Amiga Persecution Complex is by no means limited to Amiga users; NeXT, NeWS, OS/2, Macintosh, LISP, and GNU users are also common victims. Linux users used to display symptoms very frequently before Linux started winning; some still do. See also newbie, troll, holy wars, weenie, Get a life!.
Bah, there he goes again! ESR has a terrible reputation and track record of misappropriating, misquoting, and ideologically redefining hacker culture in his corrupted version of the MIT AI Lab Jargon File (not to mention his vile and unrepentant racism).
"Amiga Persecution Attitude(TM)" is a term I'd been using for years before I fictionally trademarked it in the X-Windows Disaster chapter of the Unix-Haters Handbook in 1994, and ESR ripped it off without attribution and misquoted it as "Amiga Persecution Complex" in version 4.1.0 of his Jargon File in 1999. He even used my examples, NeWS and NeXT.
ESR suffers from Attribution Deficit Disorder, which, to borrow his own definition, is "the disorder suffered by a particularly egregious variety of bigot", and I won't argue with him about that.
Don> Unfortunately, NeWS and NeXTSTEP were political failures because they suffer from the same two problems: oBNoXiOuS capitalization, and Amiga Persecution Attitude(TM).
Anyway, "Amiga Persecution Complex" sounds too much like "Military Industrial Complex", which implicitly gives Amiga users too much credit for power and organization and influence. It's not complex: Amiga, NeWS, NeXT and Lisp users have ATTITUDE.
In his 2008 review of the book, he even admits we'd discussed this stuff face to face in the late 1980s, years before the Unix-Haters Handbook was published. He also complains that I wasn't explicitly credited for the chapter, which I was. It's a weird thing to say from someone who took a term from that very chapter without credit, corrupted the wording, and shaved off the fictional (TM).
ESR> Though it’s not explicitly credited, I’m fairly sure most of this chapter was written by Don Hopkins. Don is a wizard hacker and a good man who got caught on the wrong side of history, investing a lot of effort in Sun’s NeWS just before it got steamrollered by X, and this chapter is best read as the same bitter lament for NeWS I heard from him face to face in the late 1980s.
And his story doesn't even make chronological sense. In the late 1980s NeWS was alive and kicking, and I was enthusiastically hacking and evangelizing it, not lamenting it. I didn't go to work at Sun on NeWS until the early 1990s. I started porting SimCity to NeWS and HyperLook in 1991 and shipped it in 1992, and Sun didn't cancel X11/NeWS until late 1993. So what he heard from me face to face in the late 1980s wasn't a "bitter lament" for something that hadn't died yet. He's retconning the outcome into the conversation, just as he retconned my term into his Jargon File.
Even on his own blog, his readers connect the dots. In 2008 someone asked what "Amiga Persecution Attitude" on page 140 of the Unix-Haters Handbook meant, and was told it's "defined in the Jargon File as Amiga Persecution Complex." That's how uncredited appropriation works: the original gets explained by pointing at the copy.
You're right! I'd forgotten about that. Except for the 01980s conversation, which I hadn't heard of.
I don't agree with all of your criticisms of ESR (who, amusingly, is uncredited on the page I linked) but certainly the term was published in the UNIX-HATERS handbook long before.
Speaking of which, are there UNIX-HATERS archives?
And one from my own archive, about how to apply by submitting a flame to prove your Unix Hatred:
From: "Pandora B. Berman" <CENT@AI>
Subject: request
Date: 17 December 1989 at 12:06:15 GMT+1
To: till@____
Date: Tue, 12 Dec 89 14:52:39 PST
From: Don Tillman <till@____>
To: Postmaster@AI
Subject: request
Hiya. Would it be possible for me to get added to the Unix-haters
mailing list? Thanks muchly.
many things are possible. Moon might turn blue, for instance (if we lock
him outside without his jacket for too long, say). it is certain, though,
that as official a body as Postmaster@AI would not touch such a request
with a 10" light pen; that might be construed as giving official sanction
to discussion of such a subversive topic, and besides the unix-haters are
anarchists and would never stand for it. However, if you can provide us
with sufficient good cause -- a short flame, say, on your pet piece of unix
braindeath, or references from recognized authorities that you are a unix
hater in good standing -- then we will be glad to give your request all due
consideration..
https://freedictionary.org/search/amiga_persecution_complex
The disorder suffered by a particularly egregious variety of bigot, those who believe that the marginality of their preferred machine is the result of some kind of industry-wide conspiracy (for without a conspiracy of some kind, the eminent superiority of their beloved shining jewel of a platform would obviously win over all, market pressures be damned!) Those afflicted are prone to engaging in flame wars and calling for boycotts and mailbombings. Amiga Persecution Complex is by no means limited to Amiga users; NeXT, NeWS, OS/2, Macintosh, LISP, and GNU users are also common victims. Linux users used to display symptoms very frequently before Linux started winning; some still do. See also newbie, troll, holy wars, weenie, Get a life!.
Oddly it doesn't mention Smalltalk!