On Mon, Jan 12, 2009 at 12:08 PM, chris yarger <[email protected]> wrote: > so what are we doing about it ? >
Here is a thought... we are making it harder for ourselves when we bash Windows/Microsoft. Many, many people are comfortable with the Windows environment. And despite all of the reasons that people give for hating it, it does work quite well for many people. I am writing this from a WindowsXP machine that has gone almost 3 years without any issues at all. I don't think I've seen a blue screen since installing XP on this box. I have had no issues (knock on wood) with viruses or worms. Other than games, I run just about all open source software on it (Firefox, OpenOffice, GIMP, etc). But the Linux community insists that M$ Windoze is junk. For the average person running Windows, I think this creates two problems. First, they don't see a huge problem with their computer, so they figure we're a bunch of freaks. Second, if we bash the thing they are comfortable with they may be hesitant to try Linux. If its that different, they may say, how will they adjust to it? So, what to do? Throw away the holier than thou attitudes and present Linux for what it is, a free, open alternative. Not something that is "better", or "for smarter people", but an alternative. I have set several people up with Linux in the past few years. I was honest about it from day one. I told them that there may be things that don't work as well, or aren't as easily accomplished as on Windows, but it is free and open, and they should give it a shot. And now, a couple years later, they are happily using it. Granted, the main things they use it for are surfing the web and viewing pictures from their digital cameras, but it works great for that. I got a phone call from one of the people the other day asking about installing a printer. He thought it was going to be painful. To the contrary, he plugged it in, Linux recognized it, and he was off. For him, Linux is working great, partially because the expectations were properly set. At the moment, Linux is not a viable solution for all Windows users, though it has made much progress in the past few years. The challenge for us is to find the people who it will work for and present it as an alternative. Honestly evaluate if it will be successful for them, and if it will be, help them install it and give them a hand when problems pop up. Its my honest belief that the Linux community can be its own worst enemy when we bash the thing that people know and are comfortable with, and come across as elitists. Kevin P.S. My comments about bashing windows and elitism are in reference to the comments in that blog, not people on this list. I would never accuse any list dwellers of anything other than being wonderful human beings :)
