-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Dominique Leuenberger wrote: > Allen wrote: >> They are competing with Microsoft, they have to make it easy enough to >> use that drooling idiots don't need to remember big scarey log ins and >> passwords. >> It's a happy Medium, Root doesn't log in by default, and making users log >> in, makes them write all of it down and stick it on the monitor anyway. >> It's a trade off, you secure a computer to the best of your know hows >> and a user just knocks that down with a pasty. > > I think it's more than frustrating to call everybody that's not a > computer expert a "drooling idiot". It's a fact that a *normal* home > user wants to turn on his computer and start to work, without thinking > about all the techniques behind a computer and what device in it makes > exactly has what function.
Surely. Unfortunately, the complexity involved in development, networking and all the other technologies that apply to IT are there, and won't vanish any time soon. Although I wouldn't call non-experts "idiots", basically, Allen is not that far from being correct on his point. Unless we can remove the risks of trojans, virii, cracking, defacing and other security issues, there has to be _some_ education taking place. Of course, Microsoft plays a big role here, as they've never been taking care of security aspects and made almost everyone believe that using a PC (with Windows) is simple, easy, intuitive (*), etc... (which, funnily, doesn't really apply to Windows IMHO). (*) gosh do I hate that PR term... walking is "intuitive", but no single PC nor operating system out there today is "intuitive", not even MacOSX... hell, not even a DVD player appliance is Obviously, it is not true. Just like you can't leave your cash or the keys of your car in front of your house all night and be sure that it's still there tomorrow morning, computer users must understand that a minimum of learning is involved with using a computer. > Isn't it possible for linuxers to accept that there are others around, > still impressed by the simpleness and stability of Linux? But they don't > know how to compile a kernel or how to install a program from sources... > in fact they probably don't know what a source is! Definately. I don't think Allen said the opposite though ;) Nevertheless, learning a few basics must be an acceptable effort to accomplish. > So as Linux is growing to the mass market, Linux pro's should start to > help them and not to call them *idiots*; otherwise tey'll tell everybody I agree 100% with you here. > what a crap Linux is (ups.. sorry! That's absolutely not what I think! > So don't kill me for this sentence) and if they get no help, they'll > just fall back to Windows: the system they^ve been using for a long time > and the system with many so-called professionals around... The weird thing is that most PC users think that having 4 different anti-virus, personal firewalls and other similar crap that eats up 50% of their PC's processing power is absolutely normal. When you happen to leave the minority of well-informed, technically savvy, Linux/Unix/FOSS aware people, it's really frightening to see what the Microsoft brainwash machine has done to them over the many years they dominate the end-user market. Again, they must understand that there is /some/ learning involved with any operating system, and that very much includes Linux. But the more they know, the better they'll be able to use their tool (=PC), the better they'll be able to get their work done. Because in the end, that's what most people want. <off-topic level="high"> > Sorry dewds! I just think a lot of wars could be avoided if we'd accept > that not everybody has the same knowledge and meaning about something! Well, IMVHO, most wars could be avoided if there weren't as blatant differences between rich and poor, and - at least in the past... although... - if there weren't religions. But hey, this is really sliding off of the topic of this mail ;) </off-topic> cheers - -- -o) Pascal Bleser http://linux01.gwdg.de/~pbleser/ /\\ <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> _\_v The more things change, the more they stay insane. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.0 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQFDSXBBr3NMWliFcXcRAnbhAJ9gA4CMMTTKWS3N22lZ0Q3Lpm+MdgCfS7c0 XOJ6Jc1KnDZen+hOTZFP1iM= =tkeH -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
