Slashdot Mirror
Moms Go Linux, And Other Windependence Winners
An anonymous reader writes "There's an entertaining article over at DesktopLinux.com entitled "Why Aren't All Our Moms Running Linux?", one of the winners of their recent wIndependence Day essay contest. From the introduction: 'Why aren't all our moms running Linux? This is a serious question, so don't laugh. I used to get phone calls about once a week, on average; it's my mom, telling me that "my computer is running out of virtual memory" or "my email keeps beeping at me" or "I can't read this document" or (the best one) "my computer is *broken*." I knew that, at the time, she was of course not running Linux. Then, one day, listening to yet another complaint, it hit me. Why aren't all our moms running Linux on their computers?" Maybe it's the cuddly Penguin logo? ;-)" They're adding the winning entries to the site week by week - I wonder how many are from Slashdot readers.
Look, my mom has trouble with Excel. You think she'd be able to run Linux? You think she'd be able to build a kernel module? Even install an RPM package?
C'mon, give me a break.
HELLO?!?!?! Linux is **not** the end all, be all operating system! It is FAR from it! Stop thinking it! Mom won't use Linux because Linux is **not** user friendly. Linux is not a desktop operating system. Linux is an EDUCATIONAL and EXPERIMENTAL operating system used by people with a bigger understanding of how computers work and want to expand their knowledge even more. Most people don't want to get "in deep" into the system, they just want to use their word, excel, solitaire. They could care less that the vm of Linux is more computationally inexpensive than that in Windows.
Why Aren't our moms running Linux?
Easy, because we don't want to hear about our moms getting rooted. That's why.
For that kind of user, I'm not sure that Linux with an install utility like Ximian Red Carpet is any more complicated than Windows. People who don't like dicking around with computer stuff are probably *good* candidates for modern Linux distributions.
My wife - a very bright woman who completed her university degree in Finance before her 20th birthday - uses spreadsheets like this: She enters the data into columns, performs the calculations by hand or with a calculator, and then enters the result in the appropriate cell.
Yes, I think it's crazy too - but she just doesn't like (or trust) computers. She's just as happy with Linux as she was with Windows - which isn't very happy, but the point is that Linux is not necessarily a step down in usability for non-geeks.
Kind of an opposite case for my mom - she spends all her time on her Windows PC, in various gardening and photograpy forums, playing Freecell for ridiculously long stretches of time, etc.
But until recently, every time I would visit, I'd end up spending half an hour fixing things, removing virii, and generally un-fucking up her computer. (I say "until recently" because, thankfully, she has a friend nearby to deal with that stuff). And, I discovered the reason I hadn't heard from her for a few weeks was because Outlook Express got so fucked up she could no longer even send or receive mail. There have been so many occasions that she's told me a Windows tale of woe, and I've told her that I'm sympathetic, but that I just don't have those kinds of problems on Linux.
I'm not sure she's ready for a change yet - she faces the same inertia problem that so many countless others face wrt their Windows use; but someday, I'll introduce her to Linux. I'll have to set it up, spend a day with her showing her how to use stuff, show her how to get more software, and so on. But after that I (and her Windows-helper friend) will probably have drastically less work to do keeping that PC going.
pr0n - keeping monitor glass spotless since 1981.