Per Backman wrote:
>The one I got goes a bit different;
Oh, I got the new one (send "info SURVPC" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]). I do
recognize the one you quoted.
And I think your views differ from mine (mine would to) depending on what
welcome note we refer to.
>>But I think what most here feel that we want to do things our way and not
>>beeing forced to do it in some way just because "everyone else does", and
>>this might make what we write a little too much to the "other side" at
>>times. I don't care if everyone else uses Windows, as long as I don't have
>>to suffer in some way from it.
>I think that "we" are very different, and I do not want anyone to be
excluded from"us" >just because he or she mainly uses Windows.
The point here was not that none of "us" uses Windows (hey I'm writing this
in Eudora which is a Windows program). The point I was trying to make is
that (IMO) people who read/write to this list use (a) certain Operating
System(s) because he/she wants to more than the average computer user.
Most people doesn't know of anything else but the latest Windows and Office
versions and are too afraid to try something else (or even to switch from
one Office program to the other - some learn ex. Excel inside and out but
can't even operate Word).
Somehow someone has made all these people afraid that if they touch a
computer it can be completly and utterly destroyed. Therefor I think many
blaim themselves that Windows crashes and can't understand other peoples
critic. "If I hadn't hit that button which I never have used before this
wouldn't have happened - it's all my fault." Completly ignoring the fact
that the same button works perfectly on other computers, since if it was
defunct it would probably not be in there to start with.
The human mind is by nature curious but many looses that when they sit in
front of a computer (and others like myself get much more curious). IMO we
as humans shouldn't let the computers descied over us (which some of these
people are afraid might happen) so such use of a computer can be dangerous.
So if we ever want to make people wake up and see that there are
alternatives (be it DOS, Linux, OS/2 or whatever is out there) we first
need to start by learning people that the computer isn't something that
will destroy either the user or itself if something goes wrong. After that
step we can tell them there are alternatives to Windows but without that
knowledge that a computer isn't by nature crashing because of the way a
user works this is a dead-end mission.
The chances that an average Windows user, by his/her own accord, will slip
ex. a Linux CD in and install Linux is extremly small at this date.
Basically I think these problems start with the "courses" that companies
have for their employees. There the user is learned that things can only be
done one way and that all other ways are dangerous. Ex. They teach people
to hit the small button in the upper right hand corner to close a program.
Completly ignoring the fact that the "File" menu is also common on other
OS. There are also few Windows programs that will not close with ALT-F4 but
this is something people haven't heard of after going courses. The keyboard
is ONLY meant for typing in the data NEVER to operate the program(s).
Very few people ever take time to learn even the programs he/she uses every
day in more dept than to just do the basics (and often only in one way).
But this is the fault of that those people that have jobs to go to need to
work so much, often because someone has got the smart idea that if only
they place computers on every desk and let all the users go on a two-day
course the work will be made much faster (almost regardless of what sort of
job it is). This will not happen if the users aren't aware how to teach
themselves new ways to do things.
The strange thing is that new programs have more features than the old ones
and most of the users who can't use their old software to the fullest are
desperate to get new versions with more features that they'll never
learn/use anyway.
I think that if employers let the employees go a REAL course for a few
weeks they might even save in the money for it since people will work
faster than and they might not need to switch computers so fast. The users
will if they aren't afraid find new ways to do things which will be faster
- both to start and for the computer to finish. Unfortunately I don't think
such a course exists, the sad thing in it all is that the people who lead
the courses often are afraid themselves to try new things.
I guess it all boils down to the lack of REAL computer experts. But this
might change in the following 5-10 years since more people that have grown
up with computers (like myself) will come out to the job market by then and
kids never do understand how dangerous something might be so they learn
much faster if there's an environment were they can learn :)
There's a computer revolution, regardless if we like it or not, and in most
revolutions there are misstakes made in the begining. I guess it's just
something we'll need to live with at the moment we (as in the majority of
computer users) can IMO probably look back at these days and wonder how
such stupid things were allowed/done. Similar to that we now wonder why
(non-organic) trash earlier on was burried in the ground and thereby people
thought that it didn't exist anymore.
But while speaking of that, we can see the constant missuse of computers in
the same light as the fact that many "underdevloped" countries keep
repeating the same misstakes as we have in the "industrialized" world. I
guess the sollution to that is way out of my leauge and probably very OT so
I'll stop writing now. Thanks for reading.
//Bernie
http://hem1.passagen.se/bernie/index.htm DOS programs, Star Wars ...
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