On Thu, Aug 21, 2008 at 2:52 PM, Vince Teachout <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Wow. Apparently I hit a nerve with you and Ed. Nah. Just musta had extra caffiene in the Earl Grey after lunch. Please don't take it personally. > Why did both you and Ed take it to an extreme? Well, come on, Vince, flamewars are never fun if everyone is *reasonable* <g>. I thought I threw in enough <g>. Apparently not. No offense intended. > 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. I hear ya. I'm an extremist with 12 computers in the house. Well, one is Laura's. And we share a couple of the others. And there are multiple distros on many of them, and Windows 2000 and XP and OS X, too. So, throwing another distro on the fire is just a hobby. > 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? It's not a problem, that's the point. Choices are a fact of life, and more choices are better, even if they make us "unhappy." > 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. I think the problem with our conversation is that I'm such a poor communicator that you aren't understanding that I'm agreeing with you. Choice is Good. Choice is Hard. > That works for you. Good. I buy my tea in bulk at the coop, which > works for me. Ooo. I've been out-Pc'd! What do you use to brew it? A ball or a strainer or do you make your own bags? I've tried to get Yerba Mate working with a ball, but mostly just make a mess. > And I definitely have a problem with no choice - aka windows. I know you're enlightened. It's one of the reasons I thought I could jog you on this. > That is exactly what I'm doing with Linux, so why I am getting a load of > shit for it? 'Cause I have a working stove while I make up my mind, and you don't seem to have a working Linux. > Attempting to do it, in my own, plodding, methodical way. By > downloading distro, after distro, trying them, and comparing them. That's great. And I appreciate hearing what you're learning. I was in a different situation, where I had the opportunity to deploy a Linux box at a client site, but need to choose the distro immediately. I had local support for Red Hat, so we went with RH9 and the client has been happily up and running for years now. > Do you mean like the winners who chose IPhone 2, or the winners who > chose Beta, or the winners who chose Windows J++? Hey, I'm an Amiga fan, you don't need to lecture me. But there are a bunch of folks who will defend to their death their choices of iPhones, BetaMax, Amigas, Corvairs or baseball teams . Fine, more power to them, no skin off my nose. If you decided to standardize on Lindows, I might think that was bizarre and might want to ask you why, to understand the criteria of your choice. There's a corollary to the Paradox of Choice, I'd like to nickname it the Paralysis of Choice, although I'm willing to bet some clever way has already coined that, that says it's better to eat some jelly today than no jelly today, even if it is hard to choose. As you said above, "And I definitely have a problem with no choice - aka windows." Hmmm... jelly. Jelly doughnuts... > ? 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? Yeah, like I said. Maybe I need to lay off the extra-caffienated beverages after lunch... but my point was that the least acceptable choice is not to choose. I know you are not doing that; you're evaluating the different distros and trying to pick the ultimate one. I've accepted that some are good now, others may be good later, and that it's better I start learning now, even if switching has to happen later. That's how I learned dBASEII and III and III+ and Fox and Clipper. Switching is just a normal cost of business in our industry, but building up a base of learning helps make more informed choices possible. I ran a dual-boot machine for years and was always in the other OS than the one I needed for the next thing on the list. So, finally, I just did it, switch to Linux on the desktop, cobbled together some backup machines, fallback plans, OSes on VMWare, etc. and struggled through it. I've switch distros a half-dozen times since. But have never regretted the switch. For me, it was "Just Do It." My point was the particular study you cited, that people will not choose jelly when presented with too many choices simply illustrates that having to make a difficult choice is harder than an easy one, and their enticement wasn't worth the extra effort. > 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. Well, most Linuxheads I know are about as socially-backwards as a group can get, myself included. Giving you flack isn't necessarily a bad thing. I'm surprised Ubuntu didin't work for you, but too each their own. One of my fellow volunteers at the LUG is a big Gentoo fan, and will gladly explain why, in detail, if you're foolish enough to ask. > 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.... It's advertising. But consumers read the ads in the paper and somehow manage to feed and clothe themselves. The choices they make are not so important as most products will suffice (let's not go off on the American's are obese thread...) and the same is true of distros: I have every confidence in the world that you could do most of what you need to do on a computer with any one of the top 20 distros on distrowatch. Or OS X. Or Windows for that matter. And on a Dell or a Gateway or a Lenovo or an HP. These choices are just not that important. Our toaster died last year. The vast majority of consumers just go to their local Tar/Wal/BestCity store and get another one. We shopped for one that matched the era of our house, didn't have too much silly features (LEDs were out) or too little reliability for WEEKS. Meanwhile we burnt toast in the toaster oven. But we found just the right one, and have been happy with it. The same could apply to distros: Mom and Pop could just run Ubuntu (or Windows or OS X) and get just as much out of the 5% of it they use, while you and I really want a lot of features done our way. > 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 Too bad. I'd hoped you'd enjoy getting a hard time about it. Time to get to work, then... -- Ted Roche Ted Roche & Associates, LLC http://www.tedroche.com _______________________________________________ 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. This statement is added to the messages for those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious.
