Re: Frethern virus going around
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On Tue, Jul 16, 2002 at 08:06:42PM -0700, ben wrote:
> so far, i've converted five to the way of the light (albeit four mandrake,
> one suse), under the promise that i always make, that if they make the jump,
> anything i can do to help is free, as in beer. given that offer, extended to
> everyone i know, i'm still making more than beer money on the recalcitrants
> who insist that their neighbor's aunt's uncle's ex-housekeeper's brother's
> wife's nephew has it on good authority that linux, much less debian, is the
> road to hell.
I've had a good run. Probably a dozen or so individuals, one school
district, and gradually gaining ground on total changeover of one high
school (Microsoft pressuring the neighboring county's ESD *REALLY*
helped my argument, thanks Microsoft! Couldn't have come at a better
time, either. Just the day before it was announced, I told the local
school district it would do them some good now that they like Linux on
thier servers to start migrating classrooms, especially considering
Microsoft doing random license inspections and beauracratic
impossibilities given current of keeping that number of draconian
licenses straight.
My (lengthy) email to the district office ended with something like,
"Given the fact that, especially in the high schools, we can't be sure
what is installed everywhere, nor can we realistically verify the same
on a regular basis given present staffing, and Microsoft breathing down
people's necks looking for license infringement, I see two options: 1)
Switch to Linux in the classroom, like Multnomah County ESD has been
doing research into and I started to help do at School of Science and
Tech under your blessing, or 2) triple IT staffing and dole out extra
money to keep track of licencing and purchase enough to remain in
compliance.
"Linux and open source software isn't (yet) widespread, and exposes the
feel of how a computer should work to students. Present computers
courses covering basic use of Windows and MS-Office is a fruitless
endeavor at best; in today's world, both aren't terribly more complex
than navigating a universal remote sitting on most family coffee tables.
Plus, people who can get by in unix with day to day browsing and office
type applications will find adjusting to other operating systems and
applications found in the work environment not covered by school classes
considerably easier to adapt to than if we promote Microsoft or Apple's
worldview.
"Software licensed under the GPL, such as Linux, is freely
redistributable and infinately relicensable, so it's possible to obtain
one copy and make copies for the entire district for well under the cost
of licensing presently used [mostly-Microsoft] software for a standard
installation for one donated computer.
"Considering lack of any real district policy towards proper licensing,
the propensity towards using the same CD key for all installations for
simplicity, and the obligation to teach students something useful
instead of showing them what they'll likely pick up from simply
existing, why not choose software almost seems like it was placed into
our laps for this purpose?
I hear from my buddies over at the district that this was initially
dismissed with "yeah, we'll get around to it some day; no big hurry,
they'll never audit a non-profit" the day I sent it, but was the
following day when Microsoft declared that it intended to audit the
Multnomah County ESD, in which they went over it and said, "OK, so this
alumni is actually in contact with reality, what can be done?"
Only time will tell what's going on over there, I haven't recieved any
more detail on the thinking over there.
I'm extremely disappointed that Microsoft backed down against the
Multnomah County ESD, as they fired back at Microsoft with, "Audit us
and we'll call volunteers and switch to Linux before your armada of
auditors can even board a plane." MCESD has since gone back to Linux
being a pet project (the K12LTSP distribution was created and is
maintained by MCESD...Microsoft really picked a good target to make an
example of, too bad they didn't do it. Guess they realised the example
they'd set is, "Hey, it's trivially easy to get back at Microsoft and
switch a large organisation to Linux over a weekend.")
> none of my converts fully believe in it, yet. they're spooked by being forced
> to choose between the club mentalities of m$ and (rotten) apple, and scared
> shitless of *nix. i feel, sometimes, like i'm deprogramming cult members.
Don't we all?
> actually, i have a few of my would-be's perusing the archives for your
> (baloo) posts' and seneca's, as examples of younger user's enthusiasm and
I think I've worked with the public too long. Working in the public
safety sector has made me reflexively defensive to flattery, or other
potentially favoritism inducing attitudes where impartiality is a job
requirement, though arguably working tech support made me resent
flattery as it usually was the start of a very long call, usually when
I'm nearly due for a break or figure "hey, all the other calls were
quick, and we've still got folks in the queue, I'll take one more before
I hit the restroom."[1]
> skill; as well as those of colin watson and joey hess, both of whose
> restraint in the face of often massive ignorance approaches sainthood, along
As can be said for anybody who has worked a public helpdesk line for
more than three months without getting fired. I originally thought of
saying, "without going insane," but then I thought about all my
ex-coworkers and myself at the time and realised that insanity is a
prerequisite for the job, the State could have easily committed us all
and shipped us to Dammisch State Hospital within a business day. 8:o)
> i guess that the thought that's occupying my time here is that, for those who
> wonder where debian is going, its philosophy is going everywhere it can get
> to--so much so that, soon, if not yet, you can jump in a highrise elevator,
> say debian, and have at least one person there know what you mean.
I know if I wear a geekish shirt (like anything sold at thinkgeek.com)
and hop on public transit, chances are sometime before my second
transfer, I'll get someone asking me about Debian. Apparently in the
public's eye, all Debianites shop at Think Geek. 8:o)
[1] My average handle time was usually a little over 7 minutes,
extremely good considering in that 7 minutes, I'd open or look up a
ticket, verify the customer's street address, get a number where I could
reach them (in case I got disconnected or if I had to call them back),
get enough information out of often unwilling or clueless people to
determine if I'm dealing with user or Microsoft stupidity, or some form
of bogosity with our equipment, run my standard tests, find resolution
to the problem or make sure they get connected with someone who can, and
close the ticket or hand it off to the person I connected them to. When
people asked what motivated me to work so hard against lusers who
frequently actively resisted a clue, I would answer, "My goal isn't only
to get them off my phone as fast as possible, I'm thinking about
long-term slack. I know this is going to sound a little
counterintuitive, but if you're fast, friendly and fix thier problem,
chances are they *won't* call back ever again. If you schwing them,
treat them like shit, take forever, or don't fix thier problem, you've
got them stuck on your line pissed off, or they call back to waste a
manager's time, or they call back and waste some other tech's time.
Hey, wouldn't you like to reach out and throttle whichever tech forced
the customer to call back over trivially fixed issues interrupting a
very important meeting involving a Quake 2 server? Yes, that's right,
do your job better, and you generate a few extra seconds of slack time
for everyone." Word spread. Last August, we made all the other teams
at our outsource shop jealous. We put up a banner over the back wall in
our section, where it was visible to well over half the office, that
read in the @Font, "@Home. We Fixed Everyone." We were going a little
over an hour between calls, even on Monday. Too bad @Home went out of
business, or I'd still have weekends off and I'd be asleep for a few
more hours before playing various Quake 2 mods with occasional brief
interruptions by customers. It was win/win: I got paid to alleviate
ignorance, and the customers (at least, those who called the office I
was in) got fast, friendly answers from a team secretly motivated by the
promise of extended slack if they fixed it.
- --
Baloo
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