Arnab wrote:
> THATS VERY TRUE ........
> apart from a few cool games and a few
> applications...windows is dead meat.....
>
> But you know there is another reason for which
> i have win ...to remind myself that systems
> do crash without much effort.....
I have been involved in Linux advocacy for some time
now... and I _do_ have some experience of
communicating to large groups of people about what
Linux is and what are the benefits of the OS model of
s/w devel.
If you are really in touch with the world of Linux
advocacy, you will know that Linux and the other
"free" OSes are mostly about having a choice. If we
are to write off Windows we reduce our choice. Is a
world without Windows a better world or a much
different from a world without Linux? Not really IMHO,
coz you are limited in terms of choice as a consumer
of information products.
Writing off MS without substantiating facts to
quantitively back up the statements about why it "sux"
is the easy way out, it is also the zealots' way.
Nothing wrong with that, zealots do have their place
in every movement, but letting them take over the
movement could ultimate result in the end of its
meritocratic-democratic nature of OSS movement.
If someone has really taken a good look at the W2K
Advanced Server on a SMP machine I am sure they will
think twice before making such sweeping statements. It
is a remarkably stable OS, with many praiseworthy
features.
Linux isn't the be-all-and-end-all of Operating
Systems, neither is its development process flawless
and above question. It can't be, coz if it was, it
would also mean the end of progress. Those of you who
follow lkml, will know about the contents of the mail
from ESR to Linus prodding Linus about his reluctance
in documenting the development framework.
During the course of my participation in the last two
IT.COMs and numerous other exhibitions and seminars, I
have come across countless times when the
user/audience has heard out our Linux advocacy (firmed
up by hard facts), but still remained convinced that
using Windows is easier. And know what...it just might
be actually "easier" to use Windows, not because
Windows is "easy" but because its users think it *is*
easy!
According to Dr. Goebbels, the propaganda minister of
the Third Reich, if you keep repeating a falsehood
over and over again, at some time people will start
believeing it to be true or at least partly true. So
it is of little use to rant that the users' perception
of Windows being "easier" is actually the result of
the propaganda and spread of FUD by the Dark Empire.
Many of those, particularly the less than tech-saavy
users, who taking their first peek at Linux under the
hood will come to the conclusion that Linux *IS*
harder. The zealots' attitude doesn't help here,
instead of attracting the "bhula, bhatka" to the fold,
it repeals them and isolates the fanatics as a
dogmatic crowd. Unfortunately, the user/audience tends
to tar the entire lot of Linux users with the same
brush. On the long run, fanatics hurt an movement,
more than they help it.
One typical issue that we faced while participating in
IT.COM 2000 was that many of the Linux-India
volunteers present would grudgingly agree with the
audience (particularly those who had stuff running
smoothly under Windows but were struggle to get a grip
on Linux) that "learning curve" for Linux *was* indeed
steeper, of course they added that if you stick to the
task, you would attain "nirvana" from The Knowledge
you gain. :)
At one time, the Linux advocates next to me were
having a tough time with a particularly pugnacious
group of business visitors from the "US" pavalion, who
were basically harrassing the volunteers for some
entertainment. The inevitable point was reached when
the good ol' "learning curve" came into the picture.
The visitors agreed that Linux was "A GOOD THING" (tm)
but that with the presence of so many different UI and
window managers with no proper standards across the
range, it made migration to Linux that much more
tougher.
At this juncture I stepped in. My point was that there
was *NO* "steep learning curve", but that there was
definitely a "steep UnLearning Windows Curve"(tm)....
to back up my stand I pointed them that MS products
like Excel and Word etc, have been there on the
Macintosh for a loooong time, in fact MS *was* one of
the major publishers of Mac s/w at one time.
I went on that the UI (user-interface) on the Mac was
different from Windows, and in those days there was no
question about which one had the better and friendlier
interface. Sure the MS Excel for Mac worked similar to
the one under Windows, but UI wise the Mac version was
remarkably different and people had no problem living
with that. I ended my little speech by asking them to
stop expecting Linux to be like Windows, because
Windows wasn't like Linux, MacOS or BeOS for that
matter.
The visitors left the stall pacify and nodding their
head in agreement. Needless to say, the refrain of
"The Unlearning Windows Curve" became the bulwark
against all the future attacks we faced regarding "THE
STEEP LEARNING CURVE" :D
Another time, a nutcase user argued with me for better
part of half-an-hour that Linux was blame coz it
didn't have IE. He insisted that since IE was there
for certain version of Unices and the Mac, there was
no reason why Linux shouldn't be having it. His point
was that since IE had its extensive API, Linux
developers shouldn't have any problem to porting it
over by calling it COM+ interface, irrespective of
support from MS. I figure he must have been brought up
on the gospel of VB since the pre-natal stage ;)
The point is that "Joe" user doesn't care about PE or
ELF binary formats, they want IE, and they care even
less for "freeness" and "proprietoriness" of s/w.
Being "free" essentially means freedom to commercially
exploit the work of others without paying a paise to
the developer. The idea of "OSS" and "free software"
being the exultation of the global geekdom holds
little interest to them.
Advocacy and counter-advocacy both have their proper
places. But at the end of the day, when you sit down
to take some hard decisions on choice of technology --
the emotions, the philosophies and politics of the
software market usually tend to take a back seat.
Instead you have to decide on what is the best tool or
platform for the task you have in hand.
It is easy to be pioneers pushing ahead through the
unexplored frontiers of technology. The pioneers are
always elites, irrespective of their affiliations.
They thrive and prosper on the challenges faced. It is
infinitely more difficult to become a part of the
mainstream, where the masses couldn't care less about
you and your technology, if it doesn't do what *they*
think it should.
So, the next time you say "Windows sux" without facts
to back you or in generalised sweeping statements,
remember that you hurt Linux more than anything else.
--indra.
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