Dan Tynan’s May 4, 2009, InfoWorld feature, “True believers: The biggest cults in tech,” named seven technology communities whose members showed unusually strong attachment to a device, operating system, programming language, or legacy computer. “Cult” was a playful metaphor for fandom and group identity—not a clinical or legal classification, and not the result of a measured ranking.
Here are the seven groups as the feature portrayed them, with the historical context that keeps its examples in perspective.
What InfoWorld meant by “tech cults”
The feature used “cult” to describe intense enthusiasm, shared identity, and community practices around technology. It quoted clinical psychologist Michael Jolkovski: “People develop protective and tribal feelings about the technology they use.” Jolkovski also said, “And the metaphor of religious wars or cults is pretty accurate — just as a person’s religion becomes the main framework for apprehending reality, so does the OS of choice.” Both quotations are attributed to him in Tynan’s 2009 article; they should be read as commentary on technology fandom, not as a diagnosis of its members.
The seven examples were selected by the feature, not ranked by membership, influence, or any other published measurement. They range from users rallying around particular handhelds and operating systems to programmers sharing a language and enthusiasts keeping discontinued or older machines alive.
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The seven communities in the 2009 feature
The Way of the Palm
Palm Pilot owners and users gathered around Palm forums, the Graffiti handwriting system, and the exchange of apps and contacts. Tynan’s feature evokes attachment to early devices such as the Pilot 1000 and Pilot 5000, while placing that enthusiasm amid Palm’s corporate and product changes at the time. This is a picture of the community in 2009, not a statement about its present size or activity.
Brotherhood of the Ruby
Ruby and Ruby on Rails practitioners formed the feature’s programming-language community. Tynan associated its identity with conferences, a sense of belonging to a distinctive group, and the experience of resisting mainstream acceptance. The example shows how devotion can form around a language and its culture, rather than a consumer device.
The Ubuntu community
The feature portrayed Ubuntu users and contributors through forums, governance, and rivalries among Linux distributions. Any leadership or membership figures it gave belong to its 2009 account; they are not current counts.
The Commodorians
Commodore 64 and 128 enthusiasts included users, developers, and people who met at Commodore gatherings. Tynan’s feature reported that the C64 sold more than 30 million units from 1982 to 1994; that is the figure reported by InfoWorld in 2009, not an independently verified sales record here. The article also described websites, conferences, and new hardware projects then in existence. Those historical details do not establish which projects or gatherings continue today.
The Order of the Lisp
Lisp practitioners connected programming with the language’s AI history, conferences, and online communities. Dan Weinreb, identified in the feature as chairman of the International Lisp Conference, linked Lisp’s loss of standing to backlash against overhyped expert systems and the AI winter. He said: “The phrase ‘artificial intelligence’ became almost a dirty word, and the Lisp language was dragged down with it.”
Monks of the Midrange
The feature focused on IBM midrange systems and AS/400 users associated with the COMMON user group. It described a collaborative community that could incorporate newer technologies while retaining a connection to IBM system history. This portrayal reflects the article’s 2009 snapshot.
The Tao of Newton
Apple Newton MessagePad enthusiasts continued software and hardware work after Apple discontinued the product. Tynan described gatherings and user modifications as signs of a community that outlasted the device’s commercial life. The feature documents that persistence at the time; it does not establish current availability of Newton hardware or the present activity level of its enthusiasts.
How the seven examples differ
The examples share strong group identity, but their objects and practices are not interchangeable. The feature’s contrast is clearest across four dimensions:
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| Community | Focus | Community activity described in 2009 | Relationship to mainstream technology |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Way of the Palm | Palm handhelds and their software | Forums; sharing apps and contacts; use of Graffiti | Centered on a product line during corporate and product changes |
| Brotherhood of the Ruby | Ruby and Ruby on Rails | Conferences and language-community identity | Identity associated with resisting mainstream acceptance |
| The Ubuntu community | Linux distribution and contributor community | Forums, governance, and inter-distribution rivalries | Part of a wider operating-system community |
| The Commodorians | Commodore 64 and 128 computers | Gatherings, development, and hardware projects | Enthusiasm for older machines alongside reported new hardware work |
| The Order of the Lisp | Lisp programming language | Conferences and online communities | Language linked by a quoted participant to the decline of AI hype |
| Monks of the Midrange | IBM midrange systems and AS/400 | COMMON user group and collaborative exchange | Legacy system community described as incorporating newer technologies |
| The Tao of Newton | Apple Newton MessagePad | Gatherings and user software or hardware modifications | Continued interest after the product was discontinued |
The table summarizes Tynan’s descriptions, not a current survey. Its examples show several routes to durable enthusiasm: a device people modify, a platform people debate, a language with a community identity, or a legacy system users continue to support.
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“The biggest” is part of the feature’s framing, not a data-backed claim that these were the largest technology communities. The article supplied no comparative measurement method, and its descriptions are anchored to 2009. A June 7, 2010, InfoWorld follow-up broadened the framing to fandom, devotion, and obsession and added six further examples; those belong to the follow-up, not the original list of seven.
Read the piece as cultural commentary about how technology becomes part of identity. Its examples span handhelds, operating systems, programming languages, and business computers, but they do not establish present-day community sizes, product availability, or activity.
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