On Thu, 2003-01-02 at 16:05, Alex Shnitman wrote: [ Note: I edited the order of paragraph in Alex's post from the original ]
> And you can very well think for yourself, be self-reliant, learn to > solve problems, be creative, learn to protect your rights and ask smart > questions, while at the same time using Windows for your computing > needs. I respect and believe in the values of free software, but you're > taking it way too far. Obviously you are right but I was not saying otherwise - I was merly pointing out the fact that popularity of a platform should not be the single deciding factor in the decision whether to teach on it to children or not. I DO think that it's much easier to get the positive things I mentioned via open platforms and not via closed ones - more in it ahead: > Come on, Gilad, you're being a bit of a demagogue here. Operating a > computer or a word processor has nothing to do with being a drone -- > it's a skill, just like any other. Like knitting or cooking or juggling > balls, it's something you learn, practice, and become good at. > > > Don't forget that not everyone in this world is meant to become a > programmer. In fact, *all* the people in the modern world are mere > consumers of most of the technologies and products that they use, be it > computer software or canned tomato paste, and they neither know nor care > about the way they're created. This is where you and I completly differ. I don't like the concept of being a consumer and that children are being brought up to be one. This is exactly the "drone" mentality I as referring to. > People do not expect to be able to take > apart their cell phone and put it back together like Lego, and they > don't expect to do that with software either. For you, as a software > developer, it's a natural desire, but you must understand the other > people who couldn't care less, and it's just fine for them to think that > way! Everyone has a choice, of course. I do think that such an attitude is a bad one though. No, not everyone needs to be a rocket scientist. But I don't think you need a rocket scientist to have a basic understanding of how things work. I don't fix my own car, I don't fix my own TV set and I don't fix my phone when it is broken - but I do know something about how they work and I DO require and receive my right to inspect them, change them and distribute them. I want people to have the same right for software and I think one of the worst things about what closed source vendors though is that they somehow convinced us all that we don't want that. Sorry, I'm not buying it. Gilad. -- Gilad Ben-Yossef <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://benyossef.com Q: "What do you do if your Linux box goes down?" A: "Sit around in the dark until the power comes back on" ================================================================= To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word "unsubscribe" in the message body, e.g., run the command echo unsubscribe | mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
