Recent experience advocating Linux

Borden Rhodes jrvp at bordenrhodes.com
Thu Jun 3 17:12:53 UTC 2010


I get a little concerned when I read 'point-&-click' syndrome.  One of the 
major reasons why I don't advocate Linux to clients, friends and family (the 
biggest being bugs and instability) is the fact that configuring and 
troubleshooting Linux requires a huge amount of technical expertise.

People use computers like cars: they just want to get from point A to point B 
as quickly as possible.  These people have careers and friends and other 
responsibilities and although the amazing things you can do with gawk are 
fascinating, they aren't useful for getting work done.  Accordingly, people 
pay me huge sums of money precisely because they're using their brains for 
things other than hardware troubleshooting or virus removal and I don't use my 
brain for anything much more useful so I have room for this information.

I'm pleased to see that recent efforts are trying to fix this in Linux but we 
still have years to go.  I know that sitting in front of a root terminal gives 
a huge rush of power but people looking to get something useful done rather 
than bask in the computing experience don't appreciate the novelty as much as 
the hackers and hobbyists do.

Borden

On 3 June 2010 09:25:25 Stephen Kawamoto wrote:
> On the bus to work the other day - I'm a security guard - I talked to an
> Asian lad using his PSP 2000.
> 
> He claimed familiarity originally with Mac and Windows XP.
> 
> At some point in the past, he tried Linux but didn't like it. I assume this
> may be due to the point-&-click syndrome caused by extensive Mac and
> Windows use.
> 
> So I advocated Linux like mad, expressing my opinion about freeing one from
> licensing renewals during upgrades i.e. XP and 7 require separate
> licenses, as do Macs. This is reflect in their price.
> 
> As the person has some familiarity with Linux, I didn't mention that Linux
> is usually free.
> 
> At our destination, he said he'd look into trying out Linux again.
> 
> My only regret is not having printed up personal business cards, which I'll
> remedy when I return to my Dell machine - I'm in the middle of migrating
> from a Dell GX60 to a Compaq D51C.




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