On Mon, Feb 23, 2009 at 8:26 PM, Allen Brown <[email protected]> wrote: > I am very interested in feedback. > http://brown.armoredpenguin.com/~abrown/Linux/LinuxUbuntu.html
Good start on a worthy project. Here is my constructive feedback on the current draft: A fair number of typos. But those can be dealt with once you're past the rough draft stage. Suggested rewrite for following paragraph because of small inaccuracies and language susceptible to libel charges: "Tired of supporting an illegal monopoly. Microshaft was convicted of antitrust violations. However before action could be taken the company bought politicians to get the charges dismissed in the USA. They have been unable to do this in Europe and now face penalties in the EU." Tired of supporting a monopoly? Microsoft was found to have committed antitrust violations in both the U.S. and the E.U. in regard to Windows but in the U.S., an incoming new Administration backed off and settled on terms extremely favorable to Microsoft. However, in the E.U., no such lenience was shown. Stiff penalties and remedial measures were imposed. Microsoft is now being prosecuted in the E.U. on new antitrust charges involving a host of its other software products, including its alleged undermining of open Web standards and refusal to provide interoperability information for Microsoft Office and software that interacts with Office. Partial Explanation: The term "convicted" applies only to criminal matters. The Microsoft prosecutions on both continents were civil proceedings. Also, there are reasons to suspect that Microsoft bought politicians, but I'm aware of no hard evidence that it did. Bribery of public officials is also a serious crime. Allegations of crime involving dishonesty are, generally speaking, actionable libel where the defendant bears the burden of proving truth of the allegation as a defense. Such accusations are best avoided unless one is actually prepared to prove truth. Also, on both continents Microsoft was found to have achieved its monopoly lawfully but was instead found to have unlawfully maintained it once achieved. With the penalties and remedial measures imposed, the Windoze monopoly remains lawful (according to the courts; YMMV). My suggested rewrite accounts for those issues and corrects a few minor factual errors. It should make the paragraph less of a lightning rod. It's not as though there's high danger that Microsoft would sue you, but the present language would forfeit credibility with folks more acquainted with the paragraph's subject matter. The meat of your publication is elsewhere; no need to offend sensibilities on what is a tangential issue. I have some quarrel with the following paragraph as stated: "If you don't know anybody running Linux and are not technically sophisticated, stay with Windoze. It will be too difficult for you. Just stay with what's easy." In my mind, which is easier doesn't divide neatly. There's a learning curve for both systems and I suppose Windoze might be regarded as easier because it's less capable (the Microsoft way or the highway.) But I'm aware of no empirical evidence that for those who have never operated a computer either is easier than the other. Both have their advantages and disadvantages. Moreover, I've spent way too much time repairing Windoze systems for others for me to buy into the ease of using it. Perhaps easier for the first 5 minutes, but the average Windows newbie quickly acquires such a mess of malware, crapware, and DLL conflicts that the system starts grinding to a halt. Avoiding such problems and repairing them when they occur requires fair expertise and constant vigilance. E.g., does the Windoze newbie know enough to firewall MSIE from internet access and to acquire and use a more secure web browser? My experience says "no" and an unending stream of malware and crapware flows from there. I recognize that you were discussing folks already using Windoze, but raise the issue of their competence in doing so. Not all people who use Windows have had a happy computing experience with it. I'm sure you're aware of such issues so won't belabor the point. But for the folks who just want to browse the web, do email and chat, and knock out the occasional letter, I think Linux is a far easier and better solution for users. I've persuaded many such users whose Windoze systems were running at a crawl to switch and installed K/Ubuntu for them. They've uniformly been overjoyed with the switch. I think the other factors you listed in that section are far more meaty and less needful of nuance than the factor I address. "Q: But I can't afford to love Windoze. " Suggest deleting "can't afford to" to make sense of the sentence in context. "Q: OK smarty-pants. If Linux is so great how come Windows has almost all of the market? A: Microshaft has one great strength. Marketing. Linux doesn't have a marketing department but instead spreads by word of mouth." Maybe instead: Microsoft gained its monopoly by treating customers like victims to be fleeced rather than as valued customers. For example, it made deals with equipment manufacturers that forbade them supplying computers equipped with other operating systems. It denied competitors the information required to interoperate with Windoze and thus pose a competitive threat. Microsoft also embraced and extended open standards to create unnecessary interoperability barriers and quelch competitive threats. Microsoft is also very skilled at marketing but is often far less than forthright in its advertising. Linux doesn't have a marketing department but instead spreads by word of mouth. "Make sure the boot order in your BIOS will try CDs before the hard disk." You might look for a web page to link to that provides general instructions on how to do this. Many people have no idea what a BIOS even is let alone how to access it. In the testing steps, you might add a new item between 5 and 6 explaining that an OS running from CD will run far slower than it will once installed. People who don't know that could give up at the point they see the software execution speed running a Live CD. On the list of hardware and software to test in paragraph 6, you might consider adding a "How to Test" link after each that points to some documentation, e.g., in user forums or in the Ubuntu documentation. In the same section, you might add a sentence to the end of 7 explaining what to do if "Linux User Group mycity" produces no hits. I.e., try it with the name of a larger city near you. Best regards, Paul -- "FLOSS is where the demand side has taken over their own supply." -- Doc Searls Universal Interoperability Council <http:www.universal-interop-council.org> _______________________________________________ EUGLUG mailing list [email protected] http://www.euglug.org/mailman/listinfo/euglug
