Seen on Zdnet: "Will the latest Ubuntu distro finally provide a mainstream Windows alternative?"

[jarrodhenry at comcast.net]

To be truthful, Scott, I was using Linux ten years ago.  Linux only has been very "kind" to non-geeks very recently.  Back ten years ago, we seemed to be a different lot.  Many of us were in college, the mood was very antagonistic towards microsoft. The software was not nearly the level it was at now, in fact ,  the video card that I had required a paid X server.   The software support wasn't there, KDE was not nearly what it was today, and there weren't many speakable applications. 

The media did approach our Linux users group, and they left with the feeling that they just weren't going to be "welcome" in the club.  And that was mostly because Linux users I knew (and I was once an Op on #efnet linux) seemed to be more about hating on Microsoft than loving linux.    Honestly, I could see the media treating linux critically because of the way the media members were treated by Linux "users."   In many cases, we would see people wandering around espousing linux, and then espousing anti-capitalist propaganda and other such things.  

You probably would not have liked Linux ten years ago.  It's a completely different beast now, and in ten years, I cannot wait to see what happens.

But.. that said.. the reason the media was the way it was had more to do with how Linux users treated non-Linux users.. and far less to do with any "hidden media agenda."

Jarrod

 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: Scott <slewin at rogers.com>
> Daniel Robitaille wrote:
> > "Will the latest Ubuntu distro finally provide a mainstream Windows
> > alternative?"
> > http://education.zdnet.com/?p=999
> Why is the media always so extreamly critical of Linux?  If these 
> writers used the same critical views with Windows it would not even seem 
> viable to be used on a computer, any computer.
> 
> It is because of people like this I would have been using Linux a decade 
> ago , not only two years ago.  I can still remember what I expected when 
> I first used Linux, I was expecting a basic Unix command line.
> 
> -- 
> Your friend,
> Scott
>