Re: Anyone newly interested in Debian - you're welcome here
On Thu, 10 Jul 2025 15:34:29 +0000
Andy Smith <andy@strugglers.net> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> On Thu, Jul 10, 2025 at 04:00:09PM +0100, Joe wrote:
> > And are new computer users not pretty much compelled to set up a
> > Microsoft email address? It's getting more difficult to avoid.
> > Certainly a mobile phone user will be required to have an email
> > address.
>
> I think today's computer users regard these as transactional and just
> a nuisance, not something to actually use for fun, hobbies, or even
> work if possible.
>
> > I don't think email is going away
>
> I invite you to take any email-based community you are a part of and
> count up its messages per year for the last 10 years.
>
> I can think of only one example that possibly, just possibly may have
> grown in volume of messages, and that would be the Linux kernel
> mailing list. And I'm not even sure there. That one is a bit of an
> outlier since they have so many tools based around email workflows,
> that there are vast numbers of messages that are read only by other
> bits of software not directly by any human.
>
> Long term I don't think LKML will stick with this, I don't think LKML
> will inspire others to reverse the trend, and Debian absolutely 100%
> will not manage that either.
>
OK, but take it further: these people who are not using email, are they
actually likely to use a real computer for anything at all other than
playing games? Their communication will be carried out using the mobile
phone permanently glued to their hand, and they will not give a damn
what operating system their computer or console uses, as long as it
plays the right games.
Someone who uses a real computer, who exchanges files from office
applications or 3D CAD, for example, will send them to friends or
colleagues by email, as transferring to mobile phone to send them using
WhatsApp is extremely cumbersome.
We're talking in this thread about people potentially interested in
Debian, as opposed to Windows or other Linux distros. I'm suggesting
that all these people will be comfortable with email, mailing lists and
other computer-based communications. If they're not, they are unlikely
to have even heard of Linux and would have no possible use for it.
--
Joe
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