Hi Tom.
One thing I have noticed about alsorts of information technology issues, is
that they fall into what the philosopher and logician Witkenstein called "A
language game"
This is a situation where so many unfamiliar and specific terms are used,
only those in the know, those in the game so to speak, can understand them,
and those outside the game have litle notion of what's going on.
I've used windows for a very long time, and thus am familiar with things
like what an exe file does, what a registry key is, what archives are etc.
I'm certainly no expert, but I would say i'm familiar enough with the
technology to have a reasonable discussion with other people.
With Lynux though, it seems that all the processes change, and with them the
terminology. Thus, when reading Lynux instructions, intended for advanced
lynux users who are familiar with all of the terminology, I'm simply
unfamiliar with the game.
It's much like reading any advanced text book on any subject, there is so
much specific terminology that only workers in that subject know, it becomes
hugely difficult for anyone outside to understand without a direct
dictionary.
This does however make things rather inaccessible to those outside the game,
which was actually Witkenstein's point.
I think generally I wouldn't be comfortable with lynux until I'd had chance
to play with a lynux system for a while, learn some of the terminology and
try things out.
However, obviously sinse that would mean completely abandoning windows and
everything I have had experience of thus far, it's not a move I'd be too
willing to make, and I imagine I'm probably not the only person in this
position which might explain why people stil stick to using windows.
Had I enough money to simply buy a new machine to play with, I'd probably
try lynux, but as it is, I can only afford one desktop and one laptop, so
wouldn't be keen on switching to something which I'd then have to learn to
use without an alternative.
I will remember though, and if I ever get the chance to play with a lynux
system, as at one point I had a fairly long play with Jaws, i'll try it just
for the experience.
Beware the grue!
Dark.
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