Ted Roche wrote: Wow. Apparently I hit a nerve with you and Ed.
Ted Roche wrote: > On Thu, Aug 21, 2008 at 1:37 PM, Vince Teachout <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > So you choose to starve to death? Hmm. Is this a case of Darwinism in > action? <g> > Why did both you and Ed take it to an extreme? You with starving, Ed with 1 movie? I have a working laptop that I need in order to do my job. It does what I need, and any change I make had better not hurt my ability to work. I'm in no rush to change, no do I have any real need to do so. I would like to change because I believe the principles of Linux are better than those of MS. > Do you have that trouble at the grocery store, too? Yes, I do. It takes me longer to shop if there's more choices. I compare labels, prices, and nutrition information. Why is that a problem? > Can't buy a car > because you're afraid the Volt or the Tesla is going to be a > game-changer in a couple years? Holding out for the Prius plug-ins? Or > for gas to hit $2 a gallon? (good luck!) > Can't buy Blu-Ray vs whatever the hell-it is, because format C is going to be a game changer in a few years? Gee, that's never happened. > When tea is on sale at the grocery, I can pick one one I know I like > and one I haven't tried before and I'm okay with that, even though > there are 60 to choose from. Sometimes I hem and haw a little. Would I > be happier with less choices? No. > That works for you. Good. I buy my tea in bulk at the coop, which works for me. > I believe that the Paradox of Choice is a great sign of a healthy ecosystem. > Yeah, and I never said I was opposed to choice, simply that I understand the problems with too many choices. And I definitely have a problem with no choice - aka windows. > We're shopping for a new stove, and we can buy a Kenmore or a GE or a > Westinghouse or a Haier and... they are all the same! Same burner > options, same color options, same features. There is no innovation, > and the only competition is on price. Quality stinks on everything > under $1K and the choices stink. We're going to take our time, do our > research, and buy exactly the right one we can live with for 15 years. > That is exactly what I'm doing with Linux, so why I am getting a load of shit for it? > The huge flaw in this assumption is that there is some Warranty of > Happiness. That MAX(Happiness) is the ultimate goal. Life is a series > of hard choices and compromises and tough decisions and then you die. > There is no flaw in this assumption (the Paradox of choice, I mean, not the stove) at all. It's simply an observation of human behavior, and a attempt to explain that behavior. > You want to be happy? Go belt back a couple on Friday night. You want > to have a solid, working, reliable computer system (or car, or stove > or partner)? That's hard. Takes work. Tough decisions. Suck it up and > deal with it. > > Attempting to do it, in my own, plodding, methodical way. By downloading distro, after distro, trying them, and comparing them. > Do you know what they termed the 3 percent? Winners. The 97 percent? > Losers. You get to choose which category you are in. > Do you mean like the winners who chose IPhone 2, or the winners who chose Beta, or the winners who chose Windows J++? And I DO get to choose my category, and I DON'T choose to define winner or loser based on what brand of Jelly, or OS, I choose or don't choose. > And an unfair test. How many of the people tested were starving to > death? How many of them were told they would be killed if they didn't > pick one? See! The study was biased! <g> > ? I see the <g>, but god as my witness, I don't know what the hell you're talking about. And again, with the starving? > worth it. What if they raised the stakes along with the choices? Five > bucks off a jar of jelly to choose from 30. How many people would > refuse free jelly? > Then I'd have to factor that in as well, when making a choice. > So, you lack sufficient motivation to choose a Linux distro. Perhaps > we can make it easier for you: pick from any one of the top 6 at > distrowatch. There? Easier? > No. I've been watching the distrowatch for over a year, and the top 6 keep moving. At one time or another, each of the current top 6 was not even in the top 10. > (Ha! Mandriva is 7th! Happier now?) > > At the time I started looking at Mandriva, it was 3rd. > Looked at another way, would you like to be in a group or 30 percent > of your peers, or 3 percent? I'm starting to wonder. I hear a lot of flack about MS "toadies", but it seems to me that if anyone dares step outside the Linux mainstream line of thought, they catch just as much flack. I still remember when I was stupid enough to state that Ubuntu didn't work for me. You'd thought I'd advocated killing Mother Teresa. The thing Ed said about a few flavors of Linux may be technically true, btw, but the vast majority of Windows users would have absolutely no way of knowing that. Especially if they read the blurbs on the Distrowatch page, where each proud Papa loudly trumpets how his distro is the BEST and fixes all the FLAWS in the other versions.... Anyway, I will eventually move to Linux, when I'm ready, and after I've made my own choice, in my own way. I just won't be stupid enough to mention it on this group, is all _______________________________________________ Post Messages to: [email protected] Subscription Maintenance: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech Searchable Archive: http://leafe.com/archives/search/profox This message: http://leafe.com/archives/byMID/profox/[EMAIL PROTECTED] ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. 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