[lug] Linux for Dad

[David L. Anselmi]

Nate Duehr wrote:
> We "Linux folk" who will put up with patches, upgrades, messing around 
> getting modern video cards working, yadda yadda... we have options.  But 
> the general public, the folks often asking us for help, deserve to have 
> solutions that don't require 10 years of computing background to get 
> e-mail and a decent web browser.

> I think if we're genuinely concerned about their user experience, we 
> Linux folks have to watch out for our "cultural bias" to to not look for 
> the BEST solution for them, but to look ONLY for the solution that uses 
> open code.  We do ourselves a disservice as "computer experts" and them 
> a disservice forcing them to deal with the Linux desktop when we 
> recommend it to the common person who has little or no interest in how 
> their computer works.

I disagree with the above because I don't really care whether everyone 
uses Macs, or Vista, or even has computers.  There was a long rant here 
but I'll summarize:

What should we do?  Whining on a Linux list doesn't seem to be getting 
us any closer to Free desktop nirvana.

(OK, stop reading.  The rest is irrelevant.  I'm glad RMS is doing what 
he's doing.  Because of him we have Free Software and I can use it to do 
useful things.  The environmental activists haven't managed to prevent 
global warming, or urban sprawl, etc.  But I saw a hawk on the way home 
from work today and there's a fox in our neighborhood.  Things you never 
saw when I was a kid.  So having some wackos out there has some 
practical value.  And when you get down to it, RMS's philosophy seems a 
lot more human to me than most fringe groups.  And all the mainstream ones.)

Dave