In Star Trek: The Next Generation the Borg is
a species of cyborg that ruthlessly seeks to incorporate all sentient life
into itself; their slogan is You will be assimilated. Resistance is
futile.
In hacker parlance, the Borg is usually
Microsoft, which is thought to be trying just as
ruthlessly to assimilate all computers and the entire Internet to itself
(there is a widely circulated image of Bill Gates as a Borg). Being forced
to use Windows or NT is often referred to as being Borged
.
Interestingly, the Halloween Documents reveal that
this jargon is live within Microsoft itself. See also
Evil Empire,
Internet Exploiter.
Other companies, notably Intel and UUNet, have also occasionally been
equated to the Borg. In IETF circles, where direct pressure from Microsoft
is not a daily reality, the Borg is sometimes Cisco. This usage
commemorates their tendency to pay any price to hire talent away from their
competitors. In fact, at the Spring 1997 IETF, a large number of ex-Cisco
employees, all former members of Routing Geeks, showed up with t-shirts
printed with Recovering Borg
.