[Date Prev][Date Next] [Thread Prev][Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]

Re: Attracting newbies (Was Booting Debian/testing fails)



Andrei Popescu wrote:
On Mon, 05 Feb 2007 07:15:44 -0800
"Michael M." <mcubed@slashmail.org> wrote:

I think the issue people aren't addressing in this thread is one of goals. Most people who use Windows are not much more than novices or advanced beginners with respect to the intricacies of Windows
operation. Part of the reason for that is simply that most people
don't want to be. They want to be able to do what they want or need
to do with a computer, they don't really care about the whys &
wherefores of how the computer is carrying out the functions they
want it to perform, nor about how Windows and Linux distros and OS X
differ in their approaches to carrying out those functions.

If these are the people you're aiming at, then going on & on about
the Social Contract, the philosophy of open source, the evils of
proprietary formats, the importance of standards, etc., etc., is a
waste of time. They don't care. They want to get their photos off
their cameras. Frankly, I'm not sure any Linux distro, let alone

Fact: A dancer from a show in Romania lost her job (not to
mention the embarrassment) because some *very private* pictures of her
and her boyfriend got out on the internet.

Rumour: It is said her (or her boyfriends?) computer got cracked and
the pictures stolen.

True or not, I think users care about their private data, like
passwords, credit card numbers or even private photos, and their
ignorance is hurting the whole internet community (spambots).


And yet, just saying "Windows is dangerous" doesn't say anything about why or how you should use Linux, nor does it say anything about which Linux distro you should use, nor why Linux would be a better choice than OS X for these users, if in fact it would be. It's also a fact that most of the exploited vulnerabilities in Windows are vulnerabilities that Microsoft has already fixed, but millions of Windows users have not applied because they can't be bothered or don't know how to use Windows Update. It's hard for me to imagine how these users would cope with the need to enter "apt-get update && apt-get upgrade" in a terminal, which would look very alien to people who've only ever done point & click.

--
Michael M. ++ Portland, OR ++ USA
"No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream." --S. Jackson



Reply to: