On Tuesday, November 4, 2003, at 09:11 PM, Mike Mueller wrote:
I can hear the Microsoft PR machine winding up over this one (ZD for instance).
"Red Hat's chief executive has said that Linux needs to mature further before
home users will get a positive experience from the operating system, saying
they should choose Windows instead."
This will become, "Red Hat's chief executive says, 'choose Windows'"
I don't understand recommending Windows over another distro that serves the
individual like Mandrake? Did I miss the announcement that Redmond's got a
new branch office in Centennial Campus?
Some person on the list (who shall go nameless) recently posted an answer to these questions above:
>OSS requires more effort than MS to use and its worthwhile to expend the
>effort. We are the world's most technical society so learning how to control
>Mozilla should be a no-brainer.
I have seen in the linux community mindsets and statements like the above do more damage to the formation of a viable alternative to the Windows desktop than anything Matt Szulik (or Bill Gates) could ever do or say. As long as linux folks continue to deny that usability problems and bad UI designs exist in linux, as long as they continue to assume that end-users are stupid (I've heard the jokes in parking lot folks) and blame this 'stupidity' for the problems caused by some dumb programmer's bad GUI, and as long as they blame Microsoft for the problems on the linux desktop that they themselves created, the linux desktop ain't going anywhere. There's no amount of money Bill Gates could spend that would do a better job of derailing linux for non-technical users than the job done by linux's technical users for the last 10 years.
Enough. I've got an Interface War to prepare for, I've got to rid KDE of all instances of the word "Directory", I've got a pile of Kernighan and Ritchie books to burn, and Guilder to frame for it. Frankly, I'm swamped.
--Ilan
-- Ilan Volow Ergonomica Auctorita Illico!
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