Ive been reading all of this and laughing because I know Andrew well.
He's a good guy but doesn't back down, well, at all. But that's up to
you guys to figure out.
My 2 cents here is this. Ok say I come to my mom's house and set her up
with Linux, say, simplyMepis. Let's preface his by saying im a systems
admin (both win and Linux, but mostly windows). So this family member
(who I will have to support, clearly, regardless.... I mean they are
family and that's what's important, right? Besides how do you weasel out
of it? I'm not telling my mom I'm charging her $100/hour that's asinine.
Just have some cohones and say you aren't doing it if you go that
route.)
OK back to my point. I set her up with simplyMepis. Now, had I fixed her
hosed windows install, say after the last frickin time I did this I
pulled an image and I just expand the image (also possible with dd linux
don't miss my point here, follow) then she's back in action with
windows. And the important thing here is that since she's running
windows, everyone knows a little something about it. How do I open a
.wpd file? Oh that opens in Word or whatever. I need to get hooked up
with that picture viewing program... oh you just download ACDsee or
whatever. People know windows. She can call those people. Which means
she wont call me while im in the middle of hot sweaty dolphin
sex....These are the jokes people...im here all week.
But if I give her Linux what will everyone say..... What's Linux? Oh I
have no idea how to do it in this "Linux"... call whoever put that on
there for you (the crazy bastard...). So basically what im saying here
from a practicality point of view is that if I convince someone to
install Linux then they are going to think -
- I owe them something. After all I talked them into this crap.
Why doesn't it work with solitarew0rmistaller.exe. DAMN THEM AND THEIR
LINUX.
- I am the ONLY person who can help them. Who else do they know
that runs linux. Im callin em.
So I bet by installing linux I would field MANY more support calls.
Thoughts? Expletives?
I mean I guess I could set her up with #l1n|_|>< on EFNET but I don't
think that's what shes looking for.
I like linux. I don't think its quite ready for joe average home user on
the desktop, if just for the reason that it hasn't reached critical
mass. But simplyMepis is leaps and bounds over what desktop Linux was
doing a couple of years ago in terms of usability. Now maybe we should
help it reach mass, that's a separate issue. Here im just talking
practically as far as wasting my time on the weekends (which I would
like to minimize)
BTW, go easy on andrew - hes a good guy ;) Hes been running linux for
awhile now (RH 6.2 I believe eh andrew?) and hes one of the sharpest
people I know.
Chris
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On
Behalf Of Baudouin, Andrew
Sent: Monday, December 20, 2004 9:16 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: RE: [brlug-general] [Paul Ferris: RANT_MODE=1] This Christmas,
gi ve the gift that doesn't keep on taking ...
> A fine line indeed. Especially when one is the apparent target of the
> pejorative description....
Would it make you feel any better if I called you a virulent fanatic?
Then
would your outrage be any more justified?
> You jumped to a conclusion in response to my post making a fairly
large >
> logical leap in the process; I suspect you didn't read the URL I was
>> >
> responding to. Besides, if the above tasks were as easy as you are > >
>
implying in this statement, then geekly assistance wouldn't be
needed....
Fair enough. The tasks are not difficult at all. They require patience
and
a willingness to spend some time learning, which I know my family
members
have none of when it comes to computers.
>What intrigues me is that you are absolutely convinced that yours is
the
>only correct point of view here. That anyone else who has a different
>point of view and has had a different experience is just wrong. That
>anyone who doesn't believe as you do that Linux is "too hard" is
apparently
>fooling themselves. You are not even remotely open to the concept that
non->experienced users are able to comfortably use Linux. You do not
believe it >can be done with currently available software so anyone who
can
provide >empirical evidence demonstrating otherwise cannot be believed,
is a
>"fanboy", or is engaging in "virulent fanaticism"
I am convinced that mine is the only correct point of view, because
personal
experience with friends and family bear that out. Perhaps it is due to
other psychological factors, such as my parents hating computers due to
the
amount of time I spent on them as a child rather than doing other things
they would have rather I done...
I don't think it is "too hard" for everyone; once again, I use it as a
primary computing platform. When I bring up actual deficiencies with
certain of the automated GUI frontends/scripts, I am told to "get
coding".
Is this a solution for anyone with problems? Are we all expected to
submit
patches so that we can have a working OS?
Again, the "virulent fanaticism" is not the advocacy of Linux, rather it
is
the refusal to help family members who use Windows. I will stand by
that
until the day I die.
> Pot. Kettle. Black
Fine.
--
Scott Harney <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
"Asking the wrong questions is the leading cause of wrong answers"
gpg key fingerprint=7125 0BD3 8EC4 08D7 321D CEE9 F024 7DA6 0BC7 94E5
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