On 31 May 2000 at 09:13, in response to a message from
Kurth Bemis, Benjamin Scott wrote:
> Nothing we can do will protect people from that. (*1)
(in reference to protecting the unaware from
hurting themselves)
I read this assertion, and the thread which ensued, several
times. Increasingly, something seemed wrong.
<curmudgeonMode>
Nothing we can do.
Nothing.
Not one teensy thing.
Suppose there were only just a chance there was some one thing to do.
Wouldn't it demonstrate a healthier attitude to try to identify that
thing? GNHLUG exists to disseminate accurate information about Linux,
pro and con, to share, and to assist people who are struggling at the
limits of their current knowledge.
Each time one of us helps a newbie avoid being burned we advance the
cause of "World Domination".
Conversely, shrugging at newbies' difficulties is destructive, and
casts us as elitists:
"They bought from Wal-Mart. They didn't come to us first.
They're not even smart like us. Let 'em destroy their
systems." (*2)
I do not want to be drawn into endless exercises of bailing out the
incompetent, any more than the next person. But unawareness of Linux
is no crime. Unawareness is neither evidence of incompetence, of
inability, or of unwillingness to learn. We cannot expect to achieve
"World Domination" without educating people who are today's unaware,
including the vast majority of "ordinary" people. Most of the people
who are like us are already Linux users. :)
</curmudgeonMode>
The adventurous souls who buy Linux at Wal-Mart are far ahead of the
majority of the currently unaware - at least they're interested. If we
shrug, who IS going help them? Who will help the vastly larger number
of "ordinary" people? If experienced users shrug at pioneering newbies'
disasters, what will those pioneers tell "ordinary" people about Linux?
What will they say about a us, a community which laughed at their
unawareness?
Instead of sneering at developments such as Linux being sold at
Wal-Mart (*3), perhaps we should be looking for potential advantage.
We might, for instance, ask Wal-Mart to display a GNHLUG poster near
the Linux shelf. Or we might provide a leaflet to be given to each
purchaser, or prospective purchaser. Let newbies know about the
community. Offer to help newbies get started with Linux. Help them
avoid disasters! Increase retailers' sales of Linux. (Sure. Why not.)
Grow the membership of GNHLUG.
Wal-Mart might turn down such ideas, of course. But these are not the
only ideas; there is always at least one other teensy thing to try.
The question is: should we TRY?
Should we see Wal-Mart (or Staples, or any retailing of Linux) as some
kind of setback, some kind of offense to our private club?
Or as an opportunity? (*4)
A challenge to examine how we really feel, perhaps, to examine what
we're about. There may be subtle temptations, after all, to prefer
"nothing we can do".
-Bill
----------------------
(*1) "that": ..."however these newbies see leo laporte
talking about running quake3 on linux and that its
faster blah blah blah...then decide to go do it without
knowing what the hell thier getting into."
(*2) "destroy their systems": Music to Microsoft's ears! :)
(*3) Wal-Mart: In what goofy world would it be desirable
to restrict retail availability of something which one
claims to be promoting?
(*4) opportunity: = work // of course
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