Slashdot Mirror
Why Free Software is a Hard Sell
jeffro writes "Dont know if this has been submitted yet, but the Independent news UK has a rather newbiesh article on the ups and down of Linux software as a free alternative to Windows.
"Perhaps Linux shouldn't be regarded as an operating system at all, but more as a sophisticated multi-player game with a large number of enthusiastic players. You can lose yourself in Linux for hours, tweaking here, updating there. It's great fun if you like that sort of thing. But if you need to produce a document, spreadsheet or presentation, you're still likely to be able to do it faster and better by sticking with the Microsoft devil you know.""
> Perhaps Linux shouldn't be regarded as an operating system at all
.. well, that certainly puts it on equal terms with Windows.
"Old man yells at systemd"
I WIN THE LINUX GAME! I GOT A SCORE OF 10000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 000000000000000. Seriously though, I totally want to have a linux lan party so I can show all you gamErrz out there who is boss and who is the best at the linux game. "root was destroyed by _aa_'s rocket launcher". GAME OVER FOO!
a sophisticated multi-player game with a large number of enthusiastic players
That explain why I'm still stuck at (run)level 2 after years of playing...
Perhaps Linux shouldn't be regarded as an operating system at all, but more as a sophisticated multi-player game with a large number of enthusiastic players
...That's when he suddenly realized he wasn't running Linux at all, but playing Unreal Tournament after a long night of binge drinking and hallucination inducing drugs.
I Heart Sorting Networks
I hesitated before I waded down into the muck, but here goes...
It isn't Linux that is a hard sell, it is the idea of using Linux when your client is waiting for a spreadsheet, and doesn't give a shit what OS you use, only that you should have updated the damn spreadsheet an hour ago that is the hard sell.
It is a figure of speach.
Keep in mind that "figure of speech" is just an expression; there is no actual figure involved.
-------------------------
A person of moderate zeal
Find me three business executives who use nroff to format documents on a regular basis.
.com startups last year. I can give you their contact at homeless shelters if you really need them.
I met a number of them from the
I don't know, but the bottled water industry seems to be doing pretty well...
It's all Hood
Here's a bunch
I complain just as bitterly that M$ Windoze makes no attempt to accomodate Emacs keystrokes. I can't get by without them.
don't kow that if you type jan in one cell, and feb in the next, you can drag out the rest of the year.
;-)
You knowing how to do that *must* be a drag.
Also, don't start dragging with just JAN in one cell, 'cause it creates a 3x3 grid with the format:
MARCIA | CAROL | GREG
JAN | ALICE | PETER
CINDY | MICHAEL | BOBBY
Then Alice morphs into the PaperClip(TM) and the spreadsheet style switches to something in 70s style avacado green and forest gold. This will cause permanent retinal damage, so do be careful.
I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.
Your almost on to something here :) Nobody wants to be *responsible* for anything -- this is the problem. The OEM dosen't want to provide tech support, the reseller (best buys etc.) dosen't want to provide support -- and lastly, the *USER* himself dosen't want to be responsible for learning anything. He'd rather just call someone to hold his hand through the problem ... Everyone is actively trying to pass the buck
... a few years ago when I had just gotten the job, my boss comes up to me and asks,
...
... (for the non-unix users, tail is a command which displays the last n lines of a file, in this case, his mail spool) ... took about everything I had to not laugh :)
The most influence MS has had on the industry is changing the attitude of users, "If I don't understand this it's YOUR fault, I shouldn't have to learn anything." This is the legacy of bill.
People are completley content to use what they are comfortable with.
Funny anticdote to support my point: I work in a research lab as a sysadmin
"What do people use to read their email?"
"Umm, im not sure I understand the question?"
"You know, what would a CEO use to read his email"
... he then explains to me that for the last 9 years hes been using "tail" to read his mail and he dosen't much like the program
"Hmmm, I've never heard of that email program before"
"no, its the unix command tail"
at this point I realized that he'd been running tail on his mail spool to read it for the last 9 years
Free Techno/Jazz/DNB/MI Music by guys obsessed with monkeys!
Perhaps Windows users shouldn't be regarded as users at all, but more as as Disneyesque automatons fiddling with powerpoint clipart. You can lose yourself in Windows for hours, patching here, crashing there. It's great fun if you like that sort of thing. But if you need to serve a million web pages or operate an email infrastructure you're still likely to be able to do it faster and better by sticking with the UNIX devil you know.
Whoops! Did I just call your girlfriend a "tree-hugging-commie-liberal-pussy"? ;-) Sorry about that.
:> (and yes, i realize i said girlfriend earlier, and my wife will probably ask me tonight which one she is.)
as long as you don't call my wife that, it's ok
actually, now that i think about it, last time i was there, the majority of people who looked like they actually cared what they were eating and weren't in it just to be fashionable looked like they walked there i think or took the bus...that would explain the majority of cars being gas-guzzlers..
Free Webmail