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A Babe in Tuxland
Joe Barr writes "This is the kind of story that WagEd and MS would love to see in one of their astroturf campaigns. But this story is real grassroots, with a real Sysadmin writing it and a real granddaughter as the babe using Linux. A sweet tale, with tips on Linux for kids." Newsforge and Slashdot are both part of OSDN.
Tux babies, not Tux babes
-Colin
OK, how many people here were expecting someone, you know, kinda hot?
SHE'S FOUR YEARS OLD! HAVE YOU NO DECENCY ?!
-roy
Like everyone else I've got alot of old hardware that Windoze won't run on - but you can run Open Office, Mozilla on top of KDE/GNOME on a Pentium I and it'll work for kids quite well. No need to upgrade and shell out additional cash. And hey KDE Games are GREAT for kids..and they're free!!!
Yea, that's great. And when she starts having trouble you can just tell her to RTFM!
... have got me slightly worried. Slightly.
Hate me!
Has she compiled the kernel yet?
My users are dumber than 4 year olds?
Wait.. that's insulting to 4 year olds... sorry, let me correct it:
My users are dumb.
Alito: A vote for Alito is a punch in the eye to put that bitch back in her place!
That poor girl, she's gonna be an outcast because she doesnt use windows. At school, she'll be disadvantaged. "Windows?" she will ask. "What is that?". All the other normal people will make fun of her.
So, for your children sake, use Windows. Its the only socially acceptable platform available. If she was 16 and 200 pounds with glasses and terrible acne, sure, give her linux, or maybe even an apple (for the alternative lifestylers among us).
Please, think of the Children. Use Windows.
Yes, this is warm and cute and cuddly and completely precious. It's also complete and utter bullshit. Not that I'm saying it's not true - I certainly assume that it is true in regards to the facts of the situation. Howver, the conclusions it tries to draw are completely unrelated to the facts. It's a snow job.
The basic interface between MS and Linux is essentially identical. It's point and click. There's only so much variation you can have. And yes, a child can learn to point and click on Linux just as well as they can Windows.
But when people say Linux is difficult, they don't mean that it's difficult to figure out how to start a program, how to type text into a dodcument, or how to log on to the system. They mean that it's difficult to configure a printer, to setup the network, to install the driver for that new wireless card, etc.
I've been using Linux for over ten years, and it has made tremendous strides. An average user can sit down and install Mandrake or SuSe or Red Hat without difficulty. They can fire up Open Office and type out a letter or open Mozilla and browse the web. They can do all of these things without difficulty - IF everything works right. The problem is that things don't always work right, and when they don't work right, getting them fixed is usually much more difficult on Linux than it is on Windows. That's what people mean when they say Linux is difficult to use, and four year old girls, no matter how cute and cuddly, do nothing to address that.
"The legitimate powers of government extend only to such acts as are injurious to others." Thomas Jefferson.
It must be this script kiddie porn I've been hearing so much about...
Sincerely,
Pan Tarhei Hosé, PhD.
"Homo sum et cogito ergo odi profanum vulgus et libido."
y daughter uses both linux and windows 2000. I catch her boting into linux on a regular basis to do her homework on OO.o or just plain websurfing or games like frozen bubble..
I asked her what the difference is to her...
she said, "nothing. they are both almost identical I like the KDE stuff better as it's prettier" when I told her that lots of people have trouble using linux her answer was, " that is stupid, there is almost nothing different..." my answer to her is "lots of times, adults are very stupid."
remember that next time you deal with someone in Marketing whining that the color of her desktop is not what she wants or the new version of a app has a different icon or slightly different menu.
lots of times, adults are very stupid.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
As someone who's done his fair share of windows admin work (10 years, 3000+ users and PC's), I can tell you that the same is VERY true of Windows. With the exception of device support, which is unparalleled in Windows, there are just as many times when the shit hits the fan, and there's no quick solution in Windows, as there is in Linux.
I'm pretty sure a lot of four year olds have been posting as AC's for quite some time.
Until the day comes when all the other kids get marked down for not turning in their papers on time, since their computers got knocked out by a virus.
Then KD, due to her better grades and intellectual superiority, will become popular, right? Right?!?!
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The problem is that things don't always work right, and when they don't work right, getting them fixed is usually much more difficult on Linux than it is on Windows.
I don't know... when I'm diagnosing a friends problem because "things don't work right" in windows, maybe a quarter to a half of the time I end up with "time to reinstall"... The WORST I have in linux is "you compiled your kernel wrong".
I think I'd rather debug a freak linux problem than a freak windows problem any day.
That said, my problems with linux come from when you want to do something relatively simple (printer sharing comes to mind) and it becomes exceedingly difficult because there is no clear, concise documented method to get it done. (Note that I found a document that WASN'T the standard HOWTO that walked me through this recently, so I'm not saying that this particular problem is intractable)
Pax -- Ob
Uh...anyone see a double-standard?
/. is not attempting to hide the source of the article.
Microsoft posting this kind of story and passing it off as real news = "astroturfing."
What I see is someone who doesn't know what "astroturfing" means.
Life is too short to proofread.